In winter, a scheduled flight via Athens could be the only option. On Olympic Airways, this can involve a five-hour wait at Athens airport for the connection. Fares are likely to be around £250 return.From the port of Sami you can sail to Ithaca’s capital, Vathy, or hire a boat at Fiscardo for a day-trip to the north-west of the island.. One hesitates to describe France’s association of cable-car operators as a mine of information; but it is. Its overview – that’s better – of the 2001/2 ski season contains some remarkable figures.
The fact that if all the ski-lifts (4,103) in all the French resorts (357) were joined together they would stretch from London to Barcelona and back is astonishing enough; so, too, is the figure of 655 million for the total number of “rides” offered during the season. But the claim that maximum passenger-flow on the French lift-system is 3,458,970 people per hour stretches credibility almost to breaking point. If that were true, surely the queues to go back up the mountain from resorts in the Trois Vall? after lunch wouldn’t be so long?
One hesitates to describe France’s association of cable-car operators as a mine of information; but it is. Although France maintained its position as by far the most popular destination for British skiers last season, its share of the UK market grew by only 0.1 per cent, a fraction of the growth rate during the previous five years.But the possibility of France’s skiing falling into decline is remote, to judge from the investment it is currently attracting. Last year, €102m (£67m) was spent on a ski-lift network that was already the envy of other mountain regions; and for this season there will be new lifts in most major resorts, including Alpe d’Huez, Ch?l, La Plagne (two six-seaters), Les Arcs, Tignes (an eight-seater), Val d’Is? and Val Thorens (both with new cable-cars).The giant Canadian developer Intrawest is spending €250m (£165m) on building a new village at Les Arcs – and on a single day in March sold £20m-worth of apartments in the development’s first phase. This season will also see the opening of a new, 67-apartment building in Les Carroz by MGM, the Chamonix-based developer whose policy of adding generous, lodge-style units to the French Alpine resorts’ plentiful stock of mean, high-rise flats, has generated a turnover of £80m per year.Recession may threaten, glaciers recede and terrorists attack; but to those with money to invest, French skiing still looks like a safe bet.And so it should: for as long as Britons and other Europeans can ski they will head to France simply because it offers the best ski slopes on the continent.
The purpose was not to make them look like high-altitude council estates; but that was the effect. The concrete towers of La Plagne and Avoriaz, and the blocks of Tignes, conspire to create a grim atmosphere that even wooden cladding can only slightly alleviate. Personally, I find two of the most-maligned resorts, Flaine and Les M?ires, visually impressive; but I can see why other people don’t.Unfortunately, the blight is economic as well as aesthetic. If the architecture doesn’t look great in winter, it’s even worse in summer – so attracting visitors to the resorts outside the ski season is a struggle, despite all the mountain-biking, hiking and golf on offer.