We currently have 34 plots of land for sale in the Haute Savoie. Thanks to this we are recieving lots of questions about how to go about a new build project. Normally my answer is to speak to one of our experienced agents, most of whom have been involoved with new build projects in France for some time.
I have decided to do some research into the whole subject and write a 7 part blog following a current new build near Morzine. It helps that this is being undertaken by Alew Lewis (the Marketing Man). Alex and his Father-in-Law (Steve Norris, the MD) have been going through the process meticulously, leaving a well documented paper trail to help with the research.
If you want to keep abreast of the build process then I suggest registering your details with us via the little form on the right of this page. I intend to have part 1 and 2 written by the end of this week.
On Monday of this week the town of Morzine unveiled a sculpture commemorating 5o years since Jean Vuarnet won the Gold Medal in the Downhill at the Winter Olympics, in Sqaw Valley
The unveiling was a grand occasion, covered by the national news, a feel of which can be gained by watching the video I have linked to above. The Maire of Morzine (Jean-Louis Battandier) referred obliquely to a controversy involving Jean Vuarnet in during his speech. This raised some eyebrows for the new comers to Morzine. We see Jean Vuarnet’s name all the time around and about Morzine and Avoriaz, obviously there is the Gold Medal which is reason enough for Morzine to promote their link with this famous name, those of us who were not around in the 60′s will know the name Vuarnet thanks to the brand of sunglasses. If you read about Avoriaz you will always see his name mentioned, Vuarnet was heavily involved with the development and promotion of Avoriaz in the late 60′s and early 70′s.
The controversy is salacious and ultimately very sad. Some information and links below.
This might not sound ground breaking but it is quite a departure for Alpine Property. We have always concentrated on Chalets and properties in the valley ski resorts. in 2006/7 when we had a tricky season of snow we wondered if we should look more closely at Avoriaz, the prices held up well as buyers naturally headed for the “snow sure” areas.
We ski through Avoriaz plenty, personally I live down below in St Jean d’Aulps and visit frequently in the Summer and Winter. I have always had a soft spot for the philosophy and the architecture. I have often had to defend it from it’s critics. Here are some reasons why to like it:
1. Car free, when it was built in the 1960′s this went against the flow, it really shows were the designers were coming from though.
2. Designed to blend in with the surrounding mountains, it does a good job too, I love pointing to the horizon from Morzine and asking the people I’m with to spot Avoriaz. It’s there but it is well camoflaged, no straight edges, and clad in cedar. Genius.
3. It’s at 1800m and is predominately North facing, very snow sure and with modern lifts and tons of snow-making (just in case).
4. Very little expansion from when it was finished in the early 70′s has meant that the property prices have held up well compared to other resorts with a more liberal building policy.
Piste Hors have a nice write up on the history of Avoriaz.
Built in 1995, Chalet Les Pommiers is a semi detached property. It has been rented successfully as a business during the winter and summer over the last 5 years, thanks to its location return custom has always been guaranteed. The chalet is demi-detached and is shown here as the right half of this building.
Here are some interesting statistics that were published in the Dauphine Liberé this week. They refer to the amount of money the Commune (translates as Council) owes divided by the number of people who pay taxes in the Commune.
I have selected some of the more popular Communes for comparison. I don’t suppose you should make a property purchase decision on the basis of these figures, they just give you an idea of who owes the most! I’ve no idea what happens should a Commune in France goes bust.
Les Gets looks to be on shaky ground, it is an “average” sized ski resort and owes a lot. I know that in the last few years they have built and underground car park, a reservoir to supply water to the town and they have upgraded their sewage system too.
On a similar subject the Dauphine Liberé ran a story on the amount of ski lift investment in the Haute Savoie over the last year. Full story via the link below.
The “Bulletins Municipaux” has just been published in Morzine. This a the newsletter published by the Morzine Mairie 3 times a year. It has always been very informative and this issue is no exception.
I will summarise in a list the projects and stage of development they have reached.
The Tourist Office square, worked restarted here at the beginning of the Autumn 2009, good progress has been made, there is plenty of nice smooth tarmac, open space and quality looking bits of rock disspersed around the area. The outdoor ice rink is scheduled to be complete before the winter and the “square” will certainly be functional by Christmas, there is more work to come however with a very advanced lighting system and work to the surrounding roads scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010.
The work for the wood-burning heating network started in the summer of 2009. This environmentally friendly heating project uses local wood harvested in a sustainable way. This huge project includes 1.4km of heating conduit that snakes around the town providing heat for the Town Hall, Library, Vicarage, ANPE Offices, both the schools, judo and music rooms, the Palais des Sports and the swimming pool.
New pool for Morzine. The plans for this project where but on display at the outdoor pool this summer. The work is due to commence in the Spring of 2010, pause for the the summer and then carry on in the Autumn, scheduled to be completed by the winter of 2011/12. All the existing pools will be retained, the existing changing rooms and restaurant will be removed and replaced with a 25m x 15m indoor pool, a spar, 3 saunas, 2 hammams, relaxation space and new restaurant.
The new Pierre et Vacances apartment project at Avoriaz continues, we have the apartments for sale on our website. The apartment building works start in the Spring of 2010, the Aquariaz project starts in the Autumn of 2010, the second phase of apartment building is scheduled to start in 2011.
The work towards the replacement for the Prodains cable car is due to start in the Spring of 2010 and due to be completed by the winter 2011/12. The cable car that has been proposed linking Morzine to Avoriaz is still in the feasibility study stage.
The Morzine ski company reports that plenty of work has been carried out adding snow cannons and moving snow cannons around the pistes to deal with “gaps” in cover. Everyone will have seen the earth works carried out on the “Retour des Nants” AKA the “Green return piste”, included with this is 6 new snow canons therefore adding another snowsure route back to the foot of the Pleney side of Morzine. Also mentioned was a proposed to 6 seater chair lift to replace the acient Chamossiere chairlift. Work is due to start on this next year to be completed for next winter.
There is lots more information in the newsletter and it is produced in English and French. Click below for links:
3. This snowy picture was taken at 1800m above Morzine at 11am on Friday November 6th.
It’s always reassuring when the first (proper) snows arrive, especially after such a long hot summer. The forecast is predicting over 1m of snow will fall this week high on the mountan. It’s already looking fairly white up high. If you get a warm feeling inside when at the sight of snow then let me draw your attention to the following links.
At this time of year the Tour organisers always leak tit bits of information about the following years Tour de France. This is in anticipation of the release of the final route on October the 14th.
A few days ago they leaked that Morzine can expect to see Le Tour on July 11th and that the following day would be a rest day. This is great news for Morzine, Le Tour last past through here in 2006 (and previously he in 2003 and 2000, click here for further information) there have been rumours that the arrival stage might involve some sort of time trial like in Annecy this year. We will have to wait in anticipation)
I was reading the Morzine Mairie Bulletin this evening and came across a mention of the “L’Aquariaz” water park in Avoriaz. Currently we are selling apartments in the new Pierre et Vacances project via our Alpine Property website. We refer to this development as a “swimming pool complex”, it looks like we might be understating things a bit. The Morzine Marie bulletin refers to this swimming pool as a 11.6m euros “Aqua park”, that sounds like some swimming pool! I have done a little Googling to try and find some more information and the best I have managed is
” which will include a 400 square metre spa, a 600 square metre heated swimming pool and a 3,000 square metre aquatic and leisure area called Aquariaz. Based on the Center Parcs concept, the Aquariaz will have water rivers, jacuzzis, water trees, wave pools and slides, all at a constant temperature of 29 degrees Celsius”
This quote came from The Post.IE , this sounds quite a lot more impressive than “swimming pool complex” and in fact will provide a brilliant amenity for the whole area. Well done Morzine.
An abbreviated list appears here:
Major investments in 2009
Wood-fired generator and linked heating system: 2 800 000 €,
Improvements to the Tourist Office square: 2 470 000 €,
Projects scheduled for the current administrations tenure
Completion of public infrastructure linked to the Avoriaz 12 M € (communal participation of 5 M €),
Avoriaz aqua park (L’Aquariaz): 11.6 M € (financed by Pierre et Vacances),
Indoor pool near the Palais des Sports: 8.5M €,
New cable car link to Morzine-Avoriaz. 1st section from Prodains-Avoriaz to be completed by December 2011: 20 000 000 € financed by SERMA. 2nd section from Morzine-Prodains (surveys under way).
We have talked about the new cable car link on this blog. I should stress that only the first part from Prodains to Avoriaz is definitely going ahead, the rest is part of the plan!
Either way that is a pretty hefty investment programme that any small town would be proud of.
Would you believe it. Morzine and Chamonix are scrapping over who should host one of the events (should Annecy win the bid) at the 2018 Winter Olympics. I guess in this fight Morzine counts as the young upstart and Chamonix are not pleased. They have been claiming that Morzine is “too far” from Annecy to be included in the bid.
The full story can be found on the Dauphine Libere website, in French. If you’d like help with the translation then try the Google Translator it works “sufficiently”!
Briefly the president of the bid did some googling to see what the stats looked like from Annecy to Chamonix and Morzine, the result being:
Annecy to Chamonix 95km equating to 1hr 09min at the wheel.
Annecy to Morzine 86km equating to 1hr 18min at the wheel (there is less motorway on this route).
So this is fairly inconclusive so he took a local member of the Judiciary (from Thonon Les Bains so impartial) to drive the two routes, the results being.
Annecy to Chamonix 95.7km equating to 1hr 07min at the wheel.
Annecy to Morzine 85.5km equating to 1hr 12min at the wheel
So Chamonix wins by a whisker – but surely they are clutching at straws argueing over 5min!
Land Medon, 521, 850 euros, Combloux near Megeve
Land La Chapelle, 80,000 euros, Sixt fer a Cheval
Posted by Gareth 
