Le Tour de France in Morzine

October 16, 2009

For the cycling fans that live in the Haute Savoie this is like having the World Cup (Football) staged on your doorstep. We won’t have the “final”, that will be in the Pyrenees this year but we will have one of the most important matches.

Morzine has been a regular tour stop since 1975, it has had 18 finishes and 16 starts over the years. We last watched the Tour arrive in Morzine in 2006, Floyd Landis controversially won that day (after climbing over the Joux Plan).

So in 2010 the finish will be in Avoriaz, it’ll be the first mountain day of the tour. I don’t think Avoriaz has seen many finishes. As far as I can find it is just one, 1994, a time trial from Cluses to Avoriaz, won by Piotre Ugrumov.

It’ll be an interesting Tour (it always is?), although it looks like a climbers tour and so must therefore favour Contador, on the third day the tour will spend 13km on cobblestones. It doesn’t sound much but for Contador it could be a bit like being beaten up, he’ll need a strong team around him to shepard him through this section.

In summary.

Sunday, July 11th. Station des Rousses to Avoriaz
Monday, July 12th. A rest day in Morzine
Tuesday, July 13th. Morzine to Saint Jean de Maurienne


Property Exhibition Utrecht

October 12, 2009

For the second year in a row Alpine Property attended the “Second Home International” property exhibition in Utrecht. Last year produced some good sales and some contacts with other Dutch sales channels so we headed over again. Early signs are promising, we registered 20% more prospective buyers on our database and the general feeling was that the people we spoke to where more serious about a purchase than last year. It is always hard to tell how things have gone straight after the exhibition, for example one of the people we met last year has just signed for his new property this month. These things are very long-term! The organisers have not released their official figures yet but so far it looks like about 10,000 people visited the exhibition over the weekend. In a country of only 16 million that is fairly impressive.

alpine property stand

So why Utrecht? The Dutch have always been very keen on the Haute Savoie, especially in the 90′s, they went a little cool when the British pushed the prices through the roof but are now returning in their droves and mopping up the bargains. They are in the Eurozone so don’t feel the effects of the weak pound. Apparently Utrecht is the best place to meet in Holland, it is within an hour of anywhere in the country.

Here is a little video too, a word of warning though. It’s not terribly exiting.


Chamonix Open Golf Tournament 2009

October 1, 2009

Following on from an old post about Golf in the Haute Savoie, Alpine Property was again proud sponsor of Chamonix’s version of the Ryder Cup. The competition is played in exactly the same format as the original, with foursomes, fourballs and single matches. Golfers came from as far as Australia to help team Rest of the World in its defence of the title, but in the end Chamonix regained the Eden Cup by only one point in the final match. Jean-Christophe Skiera of Alpine Property took part as a member of Team Chamonix. The event is a regular feature of the Chamonix golf calendar and is often talked about as the friendliest and most exciting competition of the season.”

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