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Les Arcs (Ski resort, Savoie, France)

Flag of Les Arcs - Image by Ivan Sache, 29 December 2008

Presentation of Les Arcs
Flag of Les Arcs

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Presentation of Les Arcs

Les Arcs is a ski resort located on the municipal territory of Bourg- Saint-Maurice in the Upper-Tarentaise. The resort is made of four villages named after their elevation (in meters above sea level), Arc 1600 (aka Arc Pierre Blanche, built in 1968), Arc 1800 (1974), Arc 1950 (2003) and Arc 2000 (1979).

One of the first modern resorts built in the Alps, Les Arcs were created in the 1960s by the local mountain guide Robert Blanc and the mountain tourism developer Roger Godino. To build brand new villages, they hired the noted architect and designer Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), who had been a coworker of the famous Le Corbusier. The three main principles followed for the design of the new resort were the respect of the natural site and of the environment, the preservation of old mountain houses (chalets) rather than their replication, and the use of local materials. The result was a series of buildings integrated into the environment, all with an open outlook and equipped with large windows and balconies. The interconnection of the villages by a transportation network (a funicular railway, shuttles and taxis) limits as far as possible the flow of individual cars.

Now linked to the big resort of La Plagne by the Vanoise Express cableway, Les Arcs is part of a "megadomain" called Paradiski, including 144 ski-lifts serving 425 km of pistes for alpine skiing, but also 158 km of pistes for cross-country skiing, five snowparks, three bordercrosses, a half-pipe, a bobsleigh track, a snow cascade...
Les Arcs was the site of the speed skiing competition (as a demonstration sport, not reincluded in the program since then, probably because of the death of the Swiss skier Nicolas Bochatay during a training session) in the 1992 Winter Olympic Games.

Source: Les Arcs website

Ivan Sache, 29 December 2008

Flag of Les Arcs

The flag of Les Arcs, as seen on a photo taken in August 2008, is white with the logo of the resort.

Ivan Sache, 29 December 2008