When it comes to organizing ski trips, it can be difficult to find the “happy intermediate” level. Friends will say things like, “It’s fine, I’m going to ski the blues,” and then lead you down a steep red slope, leaving you broken and crying for elfses.
Sometimes I challenge myself down tricky slopes, but I equally enjoy cruising down winding blue and green slopes while admiring the scenery, birdwatching, and making the occasional snow angel.
The seaside resort of Flaine, in the French department of Haute-Savoie, proved to be a good place to improve my technique last year. It’s a relatively easy journey by train and bus and has more difficult slopes, but its 69 beginner and 49 intermediate runs are also suitable for experienced or less confident skiers. I hadn’t skied in almost ten years and took two mornings of lessons at the ESF ski school.
“Teresa: spring! Use your legs to jump! Up, down, up. Feel the rhythm. Skis closer together. Look downhill at the trees – not at your feet.” My instructor, Virgine, had a job.
Not many ski resorts can boast an installation by Picasso and a sculpture by the Belgian Pol Bury
In addition to the generous amount of gentler descents, Flaine’s environmentally conscious qualities and architectural heritage also appealed to me. Not many ski resorts can boast an installation by Picasso, a sculpture by Belgian Pol Bury and design aspects that flirted with sustainability as early as the 1960s.
Our group traveled from London by train to Cluses, via Paris, and then took the shuttle bus to our ski-in ski-out apartments at Les Terrasses d’Eos, on a slope above the car-free center of Flaine. The modern wood and stone apartments, surrounded by spruce trees, are Green Key certified and ideal for skiers who love the freedom to cook for themselves, but also want to enjoy the benefits of their own bar, restaurant and spa. The spacious apartments can accommodate four (one bedroom) to ten people and feature wooden furniture, balconies, dining areas, fireplaces and well-equipped kitchenettes. Restaurant L’Eterlou serves delicious products from the Savoie.
Our visit last winter was a journey of two halves. When we arrived we found several lifts closed and large bare spots where there should have been snow; we left four days later in a thigh-deep whiteout that required our transfer minibus to be towed by a passing taxi.
There has been a lot of snowfall so far this season, although the reality is that ski seasons are becoming less predictable – something the wider Grand Massif ski area is trying to mitigate. Flaine itself is involved in reforestation and wetland restoration projects, snow groomers have switched to synthetic fuel HVO100 and some lifts now run on it too (although the use of biofuels is still controversial). Free digital piste maps have largely replaced the printed versions (the money from the tickets still sold goes to planting trees).
In 2007, Flaine was the first ski resort in Europe to start surveying and monitoring the surrounding landscape, geology, water resources, flora and fauna. The study area now includes the neighboring villages and ski areas of Les Carroz, Morillon, Samoëns and Sixt. These mountains are home to ibex, black grouse, chamois, bearded vultures and the endemic rock grouse. Observations have led to the creation of winter migration reserves for black grouse and ptarmigan, ‘umbrella species’ whose protection also helps preserve the habitats of other animals.
“Monitoring biodiversity helps us preserve and restore sensitive areas,” says Malvina Sculo, Flaine’s sustainable development manager, over lunch at the slopeside restaurant La Joyeuse Flainoise. “If we know where the sensitive areas are, we can leave them to birds and other wildlife.” These areas are identified by bird flags and signs on the red piste called Combe de Vernant, which continues into the Vernant Valley, as well as on the piste map. Visitors can join a guide for a free three-hour wildlife observation tour (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday at 10:30 AM or 1:00 PM from the Désert Blanc chairlift).
Off the slopes, Flaine’s brutalist gray concrete architecture can be hard to love on a dull winter day, but in the 1960s it was part of a blueprint for a modern, functional resort, the vision of a wealthy geophysicist, Eric Boissonnas, and his , wife Sylvie. As patrons of the arts and passionate skiers, the couple enlisted Marcel Breuer – the Bauhaus master from Pécs, Hungary, who had his name attached to the Wassily chair and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York – to create something fresh and modern to create. Breuer’s first thought as he viewed the site from a helicopter was how to avoid spoiling it. He found his cue in the gray marbled cliffs of Flaine, which proved to be a perfect foil for his practical stature.
The story is told at the Flaine Visitor Center and on a guided heritage tour (Tuesday, 2 p.m., in front of the Arts Centre) past the 1973-built ecumenical chapel, complete with Marcel Breuer candlesticks, and the Auditorium, home to a Pol Stichting Begraaf . You can guide yourself through the striking art that brightens the pedestrianized center, including sculptures by Vasarely and Dubuffet and a large version of Picasso’s Tete de Femme (Head of a Woman). It is worth visiting the 1968-built Hotel Le Flaine, where the lounge extends to a large ‘hanging’ sun terrace and the Totem hotel, where you can see a Breuer-designed concrete fireplace (there is another in the Loft suite) and an original Wassily chair.
After a day of exploring the city or skiing, it was wonderful to relax in the hammam and heated outdoor pool of Les Terrasses d’Eos. If we chose not to eat on site, a free shuttle took us back into town for high-calorie fondue and hot stone vegetables and meat at Le Michet, or tartiflette bubbling in the pan at the casual and relaxed Sabaudia. Flaine isn’t known for its wild apres-ski, but bar Le Social was lively (if that doesn’t happen here – tequila shots, whiskey chasers, 80s metal, 70s disco and the occasional to the waist-stripped Brit dancing on the bar – it probably doesn’t happen anywhere else).
Although the weather limited my time on the slopes, it was enough to jog the muscle memory. Thanks to Virginie and Raphael, who ironed out the wrinkles in my technique, I had become a pole-planting and largely parallel skier in just two days. My fellow skiers enjoyed black runs, but I soon felt confident enough to ski alone on forest trails, with my eyes peeled for marmots, grouse and golden eagles.
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If I had been there longer, I would have taken a guided snowshoe hike or participated in a tasting at the top of the Grands Vans chairlift. The quality and origin label, Origine Grand Massif (Made in Grand Massif), champions local producers, creatives and artisans and weekly tastings are a great way to try local honeys, cheeses, chocolates and pâtés – and a perfect reward for all the (literal) legwork I had done on this trip.
The trip was arranged by Pierre & Vacances. A seven-night stay at Les Terrasses d’Eos costs from £265 pp, based on four people sharing a bedroom apartment at Pierre & Vacances. Return train tickets from London St Pancras to Cluses, including Eurostar, cost from £207pp, with two changes. The one-hour shuttle bus from Cluses to Flaine costs €19 yield. A ski pass for one day in the Flaine area costs €53 (child €42.40). A six-day pass for the Grand Massif ski area costs €345 (child €276). Pierre & Vacances offers a 15% discount when you book an accommodation. Children under 8 years old and people over 75 ski for free