White Gold in France

THROUGHOUT the late 1960s, the increasingly popular sport of alpine skiing was almost totally dominated by the French. Led by the incomparable Jean-Claude Killy and the Goitschel sisters, French ski teams demonstrated their superiority on nearly every snowcapped peak in Europe and the U.S. So it stands to reason that France would also want to capture national honors in the race for the growing ski-resort trade. That is precisely what it is doing. Splashy, audaciously conceived resorts are sprouting all along the French Alpine timberline and drawing thousands of snow worshipers away from the established ski enclaves of Switzerland and Austria. Despite fitful weather and the worst avalanche season since 1917, French winter tourism is currently schussing along at its healthiest pace ever.

With typical Gallic shrewdness, the French calculated that the best way to outdraw the Swiss and Austrian ski resorts was to make a radical departure from the traditional cowbell and cuckoo-clock-village style. They have succeeded in doing just that by carving bold, ultramodern, eminently convenient resorts out of empty mountain space. The most popular resorts--Flaine, Avoriaz, Les Arcs and La Plagne --are located in the Savoie region; generally, the slopes they offer are every bit as formidable as the more famous runs at Kitzbuehel and St. Moritz. Crisscrossed with the latest in telepheriques (cabin lifts), garlanded with heated swimming pools, bedecked with strobe-lighted discotheques, the swinging new French resorts have an allure of adventure and practicality all their own. How many ski resorts offer, as La Plagne does, four nightclubs and a Chinese restaurant? Where else can a skier strap on his skis at his front door and gain the lift in a few turns, as he can in Les Arcs or Avoriaz? Such elegant little touches drew more than 1,500,000 skiers and apres-ski devotees to the French Alps this season.

Learning from Mistakes. The upsurge in French-resort skiing is part of a carefully designed plan. After World War II it became apparent that, as far as ski areas were concerned, Austria and Switzerland had been exploited to near capacity. Also, by the 1960s the French economy was in difficult straits and the country's tourist industry had tailed off sharply. Then someone in the French Ministry of Tourism finally noticed the Alps just sitting there, beautiful, capacious and unproductive. The rush for white gold was on.

The government granted longterm, low-interest mortgages to resort builders, and now there is hardly a bank in France that is not involved in the ski-resort industry. The French also had the benefit of learning from the mistakes of resort owners in other countries. All the new resorts are built high on the mountain so that skiers can stay on the slopes into summer. Since the areas were simply created rather than built around existing towns, the promoters have been able to avoid becoming entangled in the confusing web of village politics and expropriation laws. Finally, they were able to install the most modern equipment and are not, like most U.S. and European resorts, plagued by inadequate lift facilities.

Integrated Activity. The most stunning of the new resorts is Avoriaz, which sits on a snow-covered shelf overlooking the Morzine Valley in Haute Savoie. Built in 1965, Avoriaz reeks of chic; it has become the St. Tropez of the mountains. The visitor leaves his car in the valley, boards the telepherique and settles back to enjoy the eight-minute ride (perhaps with Frequent Visitor Brigitte Bardot) up the steep, jagged mountainside. If he does not own an apartment in a condominium, he will most likely stay at the HOtel des Dromonts, with 40 spacious, tastefully furnished rooms. The interior resembles a pyramid-shaped grotto where the walls jut out or recede at dramatic angles. The most exciting feature is the architectural concept of integrated activity. The bar, dining room and lobby are visible to one another and, wherever possible, the architects have avoided staircases in favor of tilted floors. Near by, Les Hauts-Forts contains apartments, hotels, a shopping center and two restaurants--one of which serves only fondue. For those who actually want to ski, there are 60 miles of slopes and 28 lifts that can accommodate as many as 16,700 skiers per hour.

Flaine is more than an hour's drive from Avoriaz. Created by Eric Boissonnas, a physicist-turned-real estate developer, it is only in its second year of operation and will not be completely finished until 1975. At first sight, it is so austere and functional that it looks rather like an IBM office. The hotel and apartment interiors, however, are elegantly decorated, with heavy emphasis on Knoll and Herman Miller furniture. One of the highlights of the main complex of buildings is a combination restaurant, coffee shop and discotheque, done in Plexiglas and effectively brightened by blue lacquer paint. The lift station houses a giant telepherique (capacity: 60); in all, there are ten lifts and 35 miles of well-balanced runs.

Les Arcs is a tiny jewel for the passionate skier. Situated near Val d'Isere (Killy's home and the site of last winter's disastrous avalanche), it offers 37 miles of breathtaking and challenging slopes. The atmosphere is, to say the least, clubby. Anyone buying into Les Arcs must be approved by a seven-man board of investors. The result is a homogeneous clientele roughly between the ages of 30 and 45, drawn mostly from publishing and the arts. Although it is primarily designed for serious skiers, it also offers a discotheque with a swimming pool attached, and a theater where the seat are giant plastic puffs filled with rice grains.

Confusing Labyrinth. La Plagne, built in 1961, is almost exclusively a family resort. As such, it is a trifle staid by skiers' standards. Located near the older resort of Courcherel, the resort has 23 well-maintained runs serviced by 17 lifts, but the runs are strictly for beginners or less adventuresome intermediates. Like Flaine, La Plagne is designed as a forum in which a sometimes confusing labyrinth of over-and-underground tunnels connect the various hotels and condominiums with the enormous shopping center. After nine years, the interior of the gondola that carries people to the top of the mountain is beginning to show signs of wear and tear. But that is only natural; La Plagne is proud of being the first of the bright new breed of French ski resorts.

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