Les Arcs

Les Arcs is a ski resort located in Savoie, France, above the Tarentaise town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice and was created by Robert Blanc and Roger Godino.

The skiing

Since the opening of the new Vanoise Express cable car in December 2003, it has become part of the Paradiski group of ski-lift connected resorts, which also includes La Plagne. The five areas - Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Arc 1600, Arc 1800, Arc 1950 and Arc 2000 - are situated over an altitude of 810 to 3225 metres, although skiing is only really possible above 1200 metres. The ski area consists of 106 runs, 54 lifts and 200 kilometres of descent. The highest peak in the resort is the Aiguille Rouge ("Red Needle")

It has a reputation among the French "mega-resorts". All of them have a convenient, large and varied network of pistes. Les Arcs have the specificity of a unique "avant-garde" modernist architecture labelled as Patrimony of the 20th Century. Most of its resorts are built following this modernist architecture, with the exception of late Arc 1950 which is built following the traditional architecture in the Alps.

The ski domain provides a mixture of open runs (especially above Arc 2000) and wooded runs (around the outlying villages of Peisey and Villaroger in particular). Its terrain park has a good reputation, with green, red and black jumps and rails. It's also good for snowboarders, with few drag lifts.

Les Arcs' ESF ski school teaches the ski evolutif method, where students are taught parallel turns from the beginning, but on very short skis (that get progressively longer through the first week). Les Arcs is regarded as having excellent beginner ski areas in each resort, although absolute beginners have little to progress to - away from the nursery slopes things get trickier. Les Arcs is also regarded by many as the home of snowboarding in Europe. Local instructor Régis Rolland popularised the snowboard in France with the Apocalypse Snow series of films made in the resort in the early 1980s.

The ski area of Arc 2000 and 1950 consists of a broad valley, with these two resorts at the bottom of its broader part. One of the sides of the valley is the ridge with the area's highest point, the Aiguille Rouge. The other side is a ridge to Arc 1600, 1800 and Peisey-Vallandry, which hold a wide range of runs.

History

Creation of les Arcs

1968 : Arc 1600 resort opening. 1974 : Arc 1800 resort opening with the inauguration of the Hotel du Golf. 1979 : Arc 2000 resort opening with the Club Med. 2003 : Inauguration of the first tourist residences in Arc 1950.

Thanks to a successful meeting, in the early 60s, between Roger Godino, developer and constructor in mountain tourism and Robert Blanc, born in the area and a ski instructor and high mountain guide, Les Arcs took shape with the help of well-known engineers, architects and town planners sharing the same creative spirit.

Three fundamental rules were followed in order to create a functional and aesthetic construction in keeping with the tourist development of that time :

Respect for the area and the natural surroundings, The conservation of existing old mountain chalets which were not to be copied for more authenticity, The use of local material.

Les Arcs is completely integrated into the mountain setting, and distinguished by an exterior architecture avoiding buildings overlooking one another and by an interior open plan concept (open kitchen, large picture windows, and raised balconies) which paved the way for a new style of living.

20th Century Label

In 1999, the Ministry for the Arts and Communications introduced new policies in favour of the architectural and urban heritage of the 20th century : protection, public awareness and restoration. Living proof of modernity working hand in hand with the mountains and nature, Les Arcs town planning is being studied by the Grenoble School of Architecture.

Charlotte Perriand

Charlotte Perriand worked with Le Corbusier for ten years. She worked as part of the Les Arcs design team including Roger Godino, Robert Blanc, Gaston Regairaz, Guy Rey-Millet and Bernard Taillefer. An exhibition will shortly be dedicated to her work at the Beaubourg National Arts and Culture Centre. Fact|date=December 2007

Resort Areas

Arc 1600 (also 'Arc Pierre Blanche')

At 1600 metres, this is the lowest of the resort areas and is linked directly to Bourg Saint Maurice by the 'Arc en Ciel' funicular railway. The journey time is approximately 7 minutes and many trains also call at two intermediate stations, serving the villages of Montrigron and Les Granges. It is also connected to the other villages by regular free shuttle buses and ski lifts. Arc 1600 was the first area to be built on and is also referred to as "Arc Pierre Blanche." Arc 1600 now has 30 shops, hotels and meeting rooms to offer its guests.

Arc 1800

Arc 1800 is the biggest of the resort areas and consists of 4 'villages' known as 'Charvet', 'Villards', 'Charmettoger' and 'Chantel'. It has around 100 shops, shuttles services, hotels, meeting rooms, a two screen cinema and an ice rink. There are a good selection of restaurants available to all including Casa Mia, voted resort restaurant of the year 2003 in a worldwide competition. The village has previously hosted the snowboarding and dance music Snowbombing event.

The village is in the most convenient position on the mountain, just above the resort of Arc 1600, and given its height is comfortably above the snow line for the entire winter. The "TransArc" gondola reaches the top of the Arc 2000 valley quickly (queues notwithstanding), and there are a good selection of ski lifts, such as the six seater Vagere, to take you to the various different parts of the mountain.

Arc 1800 also has the added benefit of considerably better weather conditions given the topography of the mountain. When heavy snow falls Arc 2000 is likely to be closed down and can also be at the mercy of heavy winds funneling down to the valley. This is not a problem for Arc 1800 which is also west facing and thus benefits from sunshine in the afternoon.

Above Arc 1800 are the apartments of Les Alpages du Chantel. The residence houses 182 apartments in two 3-5 storey chalet-style residences that offer a ski-in, ski-out experience. Also on site is a local shop and a locally themed restaurant Les Alpages.

Above this is the site for the new Intrawest project Edenarc 1800. Following on from their tremendous success with Arc 1950 Intrawest will make Edenarc a four-star resort and the first apartment block titled Les Souverains will be ready for delivery by 2009 with the rest of the resort, including a four star hotel, to follow in the subsequent years. A link, like the Cabriolet from Arc 1950 to Arc 2000, will be added to make the most of the restaurants, bars, clubs and shops available in Arc 1800 already.

This area is linked to La Plagne resort by the Vanoise Express Cable car.

Arc 1950

Arc 1950 is a new development by Canadian constructor Intrawest, which also worked on such resorts as Whistler and Mount Tremblant in Canada. It is linked to Arc 2000 by free gondola, Cabriolet, and has eight apartment buildings, a wide variety of shops and, for a mountain, a huge variety of restaurants including Italian, Mexican, French, a creperie and an oriental (Mongolian grill) restaurant. The architecture of Arc 1950 is most striking as it moves away from the standard concrete blocks of the mega resorts of the period and instead is heavily influenced by the local history and architecture.

Arc 2000

With a cable to 1950 and free shuttle buses to all of the other villages, Les Arcs' highest station has more than adequate transport links. It has a wide selection of shops, a cinema screen and meeting facilities. Being the highest it often has the best snow, although the nursery slopes above 2000 have a reputation for being crowded, and there aren't so many tree-lined pistes for when the weather gets bad. The Varet gondola is a quick way to get up to the higher parts of the resort and there is also a new selection of six seater chairlifts including Arcabulle, Bois de l'ors and Marmottes to quickly ship you to the different sides of the mountain. Arc 2000 is well known for hosting speed skiing (not for the faint hearted) and other events over the course of the season.

Other villages

At one end of the ski area are the villages of Vallandry, Peisey and Plan-Peisey, from which the Vanoise-Express cable-car departs (to La Plagne, the other half of Paradiski huge ski domain).

At the other end, across the valley from Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise, are the villages of Le Pre and Villaroger. A continuous run with an astounding 2000 meters altitude fall links Aiguille Rouge to Villaroger and although rather low at 1200 Villaroger can be reached for much of the season given that it's north facing.

Administratively these villages are not part of the Les Arcs ski domain, but are seamlessly linked. Their ski area is largely wooded, but with some open slopes above. This can provide especially good skiing when fresh snow has fallen or a welcome relief when the weather is windy or bad.

Off-piste opportunities

The piste network in Les Arcs is fairly dense, and off-piste opportunities are numerous. With a guide, though, some big adventures are possible. Particularly recommended are off the back of the Aiguille Rouge down to Villaroger, or off the back of the Bellecote glacier (from La Plagne) down to Nancroix valley, just below Peisey, which is linked by free shuttle bus. It is advised that both routes be only attempted with a guide and appropriate avalanche equipment. Off-piste routes from Tignes to the Les Arcs area are also possible.

Pickup for Heliskiing by Jet Systems can be arranged between Arc 1950 and Arc 2000. Heliskiing is banned in France, and so the destination will be Italy or Switzerland. The aircraft used is the Eurocopter Ecureuil.

Mountain Biking in Les Arcs

Mountain Biking is becoming an ever more popular activity in summer with parts of the lift network opening throughout the months of July and August. There are around 10 marked VTT routes detailed on the summer piste map. Several Mountain Bike holiday companies operate in the area.

External links

* [http://www.lesarcs.com/?lang=en Official Les Arcs site (English)]
* [http://www.skicow.com/article/Les-Arcs-Resort-Guide/39/33 Les Arcs Resort Guide] from skicow.com
* [http://www.lesarcs.com/Photo-gallery = Les Arcs Photos]
* [http://www.lesarcs.com/Webcams-GB-Les-Arcs#b = Les Arcs Webcams]