The medieval Haute-Savoie region of the French Alps is haute and naught. That is, there is haute cuisine and peasant fare, along with haute-tech firms and low wage jobs. But especially haute in this frontier region bordering Italy and Switzerland is the skiing. Even off the slopes, life is a high in the Chamonix and Morzine Valleys.
It was Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak (15,771 feet) overlooking Chamonix, that attracted mountaineers from afar in the 18th Century. And since its accent in 1786, other dreamers have come to the village of Chamonix. This is the capital of the climbing world where aspiring alpine guides and ski instructors attend the Ecole Nationale de Ski et Alpinisme.
Charles Daubas, 47, the institute’s director of courses, first came to Chamonix on a ski holiday 30 years ago. Still mesmerized by the surrounding mountains, he rarely leaves, except for an occasional visit to climb in the Himalayas. The school, started in 1943, stands on the site of the first Winter Olympics held in 1924 when downhill skiing was an up-and-coming sport. The grand, oval ice rink, open to the public, is one of the last remnants of the sports facilities where Sonja Henie dominated figure skating. Just watching the locals glide along the smooth, shiny surface reflecting the alpenglow sky is a reverie. Surrounded by Mont Blanc and other peaks, Chamonix at dusk takes on a unique aura.
Charming villages
At the base of the Mont Blanc range, Chamonix Valley displays music box-like villages that stretch along the 13-mile floor, following the Arve River. Each of these 10 ski areas, between Les Houches and Le Tour, are independently owned and operated, and serviced by a shuttle bus. Each offers a variety of skiing, on all levels, powder and groomed runs, with guaranteed spectacular vistas, restaurant and cafeteria-style on-mountain eating. Equipment is the best, with a capacity to move 60,000 people an hour in cable cars, chairlifts, button lifts, and gondolas.
And for the thriller, roller-coaster type skier, perhaps there is no greater high altitude run than the Vallee Blanche. A 12-mile trail down a glacier, it starts at the Aigiulle du Midi (12,400 feet).
The Vallee Blanche is a heavenly experience. And the non-skier, too, can experience it on one of the world’s highest and most sophisticated cable car systems, completed in 1955, and overhauled in 1991. It takes 30-minutes to reach the Aiguille du Midi using the two cable car network. The first car departs Chamonix and connects with the second stage cable car at the Plan de l’Aiguille (7,500 feet); then another cable car (called the telepherique) ascends to the base of the Aiguille du Midi (12,467 feet) where visitors take an elevator to the top of the peak. Skiers and sightseers can continue on this route over the glacier and into Italy on the hour-long cable car to Helbronne. A round trip visit from Chamonix takes four to six hours on the system.
(During spring, summer and fall, visitors can take a narrow gauge railroad from Chamonix to Montenvers and actually walk on the Mer de Glace glacier.)
Great people-watching
For the non-skier, there’s the perennial people-watching from the sidewalk cafes under the gaze of Mont Blanc. Chamonix is a mix of visitors, ranging from Europe’s hoity-toity to New York’s “toity-toid” types. This is an international setting with four-star hotels (Hotel Albert ler, or Mont Blanc or Les Aiglons) and three-starred ones, too, that serve haute cuisine such as Hotel L’Eden.
The Musee Alpin gives visitors a sense of familiarity. Located in the heart of the village, the museum offers an adventurous look at the history of mountaineering in the valley and a glimpse of its heroes throughout the centuries, since the first English “tourists” in 1741 who climbed Montenvers. Their feat inspired others to take up the challenge of the Monts Maudits (Cursed Mountains) in the valley. Then in 1786, Paccard and Balmat reached the summit of Mont Blanc. Displays show antique axes and crampons, leather-bound archival documents, engravings, prints and photos that take the viewer back to the early years of mountain conquests and attempts. And then, on exiting, there is Mont Blanc, in its glory, staring down.
Characteristic of the same Haute-Savoie resort hospitality is the ski area of Morzine-Avoriaz, between Lake Leman and Mont Blanc, north of Chamonix. Likewise, this is a family-oriented and international setting with old world charm, blended with the new.
Collectively called Les Portes du Soleil (Gateway to the Sun), there are 12 mountain villages (French and Swiss) linked by 230 lifts and 300 miles of slopes, making this the largest international ski area in Europe.
Intimacy pervades
Still, there is an intimacy that pervades, as in Chamonix, among foreigner and Morzinois, whether it be on a visit to a slate works mine, a traditional restaurant or a casual meeting with a paragliding instructor.
One colorful scene is a sky full of paragliders sailing over the valley. Jump-off point is on the ridge at the Le Pleny lit (5,000 feet). A ride from here lasts eight minutes. Winter is the best time to paraglide because there is little turbulence, according to Gerard Brouzes, manager of the Parapenting School in Morzine, where he takes visitors for a tandem flight.
Also at the top of Le Pleny there is a cross-country ski loop through a fir forest that opens into a bowl with a magnificent vista and an onslaught of snowboarders. Other trails, just as picturesque, run though the outskirts of Old Morzine.
The old and the modern
As old as Morzine is, there is room for the modern. Locals Henri and Bernadette Marulla recently opened their contemporary 25-room Hotel Les Lans built in traditional Savoie style with hand-hewn timber that Henri cut from their property. He also is the chef of the restaurant, the only eatery to serve the regional favorite farcement, a casserole of potatoes, dried raisins or prunes, pears and apples, that accompanies a meat dish, such as stewed goat.
Food shopping and restaurant hopping is a Savoyard pastime; it is part entertainment and part cultural pursuit. Not far from Morzine, south of Geneva, is the medieval town of Annecy, on the shores of Lake Annecy, Europe’s purest and cleanest. The town of Annecy symbolizes the haute life of Haute-Savoie, as do other lake villages, such as Taillories with its restaurant and Hotel de L’Abbey, a converted monastery of the Middle Ages.
On winter market days in Annecy, local purveyors of smoked meats, cheeses, baked goods and produce fill the old town square with their aromas and chatter. Hanging strings of sausages and wheels of cheese form a juxtaposition of patterns that play off the archways of Annecy’s 13th Century architecture. With its canals and stone bridges, its castle, pocket parks, narrow alleys and flower-decked, wrought-iron balconies, old town Annecy is haute ambient.
But there is a new side to historic Annecy, once a feudal settlement, that was annexed to France in 1860. Though not a ski resort, but rather a gateway to the 33 winter resorts in the Haute-Savoie region, Annecy is headquarters of the Salomon Group, renowned manufacturer of ski equipment-skis, binders, boots and other leisure sport products. Founded in 1947 in a small workshop in the old quarters of Annecy, the Savoy family of Francois and Jeanne Salomon and their son Georges, first manufactured saw blades and ski edges. Their vision and commitment to quality manufacturing has since attracted other precision instrument and tool-making companies to set-up shop in the Arve Valley of greater Annecy.
The Haute-Savoie of France’s alpine region personifies the simple good life, whether it be schussing down a ski slope, or breaking bread with Reblochon cheese over the family table. This is some haute place.
For more information . . .
For more information about the Haute-Savoie region, contact the French Government Tourist Office, Suite 630, 645 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611; 312-337-6301 or call 900-990-0040 (50 cents a minute charge).
The region is in a corner of France bordering Lake Leman on the north and the Mont Blanc mountain range bordering Switzerland and Italy on the east and southeast, accessible by air through the Geneva-Cointrin Airport (French side).
Various ski packages are available through Adventure on Skis and Air France, which serves Geneva from the United States via Paris or Lyon. Contact Adventure on Skis, 815 North Rd., Westfield, Mass. 01085; 800-638-9655 or 413-568-2853.
Chamonix Ski Facts: Two hours from Geneva, it is the oldest ski resort in France, with 50 lifts servicing 90 miles of slopes in five main ski areas, Le Brevent, Les Houches, Le Tour, Le Flegere, Les Grand Montets, with terrain for beginners, intermediates, advanced and experts. Also, there are 27 miles of cross-country trails.
Les Portes du Soleil of Morzone-Avoriaz-Morzine is the largest town, and Avoriaz is a planned development built on the plateau overlooking the valley where cars are banned and horse-drawn sleighs ferry passengers from the cable car station or parking lot entrance.
There are 220 lifts servicing 435 miles of slopes in the area. Also, there are 46 miles of groomed cross-country trails.
