Annecy 2018 - what it would mean for us
Since Annecy won the backing of the French Olympic Committee to become the official French candidate for the 2018 Winter Olympics, the 'big cheeses' have been working hard to make plans for the bid more concrete.
One snippet of info that surprised us was that the committee has asked the Annecy group to come up with a new logo by 1st December 2009. No idea why and it seems a bit of shame when the existing one is plastered everywhere in Haute Savoie in support of the campaign - we've even got an Annecy 2018 ice scraper taking pride of place in our trusty Kangoo.
Other interesting news is that Haute Savoie is set to benefit from big-scale investment and building programmes if the region wins the bid to host the games.
Between Passy and Le Fayet, the plan is to build a 12 000 seater ice rink and an Olympic village with nothing short of 2400 beds and maybe even a new swimming pool too.
Further up the valley in Les Houches a major rethink of the pistes would be required. The legendary 'Piste Verte' would be used for the downhill, but possibly with the finish line moved and even a new lift being built to service it. New pistes would need to be created to provide a giant and super G stadium too. In Chamonix, the ice rink would be renovated to be able to hold 6000 spectators.
La Clusaz would be the busiest ski resort in the area, hosting 18 events in just three days, including alpine skiing and cross couuntry skiing events.
And over in the Grand Massif, one of the valley's long standing rumours could finally become reality. When the ski resort of Flaine was built, all materials were transported by cable car from the valley floor in Magland (if you take the D205 to Cluses you pass the original cables of the lift which are now in the yard of the Magland wood mill). Once the resort opened and the road was built, the lift was dismantled.
The plan is simple. Re-install a cable car on the main road in Magland which will take skiers directly up to the centre of Flaine resort, via a mid-station in Araches. This would be great news for us once the Olympics have been and gone, as what is now a minimum 40 minute drive from Magland would become a 15 minute cable car ride, right into the heart of Flaine ski area.
The only slight problem is that the project would cost between 30 and 35 million euros, but as you can imagine the Compagnie des Alpes who owns the Flaine ski lift system, local businesses and tourist offices alike would be more than happy for the project to go ahead.
On the downside, still no news as to whether Morzine/Avoriaz would hold on to hosting events in resort, after the claims that the ski areas were too far away from the OIympic centre in Annecy.
