Apartments and Chalets to buy in Morzine, Les Gets, Chatel, Samoens, Chamonix, Megeve, La Clusaz, Annecy

Well, it’s beyond rumour now. Or is it? It’s been talk of the town all winter. The Morzine Mairie are thinking seriously about making a direct link from Morzine centre to Avoriaz. So no more, flat linking pistes (via the Super Morzine), no more buses and more importantly no more Prodains lift.

The context of this comes from.

1. The current Prodains lift is due to be replaced, it is old, inefficient and some say it is condemned thanks to the fact it sits (just) within a rockfall zone.

2. The whole of the Prodains area need redeveloping, it is now too busy for the current infrastructure.

3. The county (Haute Savoie) has just won the opportunity to bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

4. Avoriaz is just starting a fairly major expansion and remodelling. We have some of the new apartments for sale.

These 4 facts coincide nicely to make the feasibility of a new linking lift a possibility. It gets a fairly good airing in the Morzine Town Hall yearly report. The proposed site is just by the current telephone exchange. It would allow pedestrian access from the “top level” of Morzine, so the same level as the two existing lifts and the Tourist Office, it would have a large carpark beneath it (the current “Champion” carpark), click on this map for the start location.

Locally, much of this winter was spent bidding to be able to be the French nomination for the 2018 Winter Olympics. AKA Annecy 2018, a lot of effort and “millions” of euros were spent on this bid. On the 18th of March we won this nomination. This is great, it means that local, national and European funds can be called upon to help improve the local infrastructure. As far as Morzine/Avoriaz is concerned they will host the Women’s downhill event on the “Coupe de Monde” piste that finishes in Prodains.

So as far as the next steps for the Olympic bid go:

July 2009, nominations will be presented to the IOC. Then we’ll know who we are up against!

2011, the finalists of host towns will be revealed.

2012, the winner will be announced.