Avoriaz ( French: [avɔʁja] , Franco-Provençal: [aˈvɔʁja, aˈvɔʁi] ) is a French mountain resort in the heart of the Portes du Soleil . It is located in the territory of the commune of Morzine . It is easily accessible from either Thonon at Lake Geneva or Cluses station on the A40 motorway between Geneva and Chamonix . Either way one follows the D902, Route des Grandes Alpes , to Morzine and then the D338 running from Morzine to Avoriaz. Snow chains are often necessary. Avoriaz is built on a shelf high above the town of Morzine, which is among the pioneering towns of skiing with its first lifts dating back to the early 1930s. Today Avoriaz is one of the major French ski destinations catering for all standards of skiing and ranks among the top snowboarding destinations of the world. Apart from snow-based pursuits, Avoriaz is also a centre for trekking, golf, VTT (mountain biking) and other outdoor activities during the summer. Cars are forbidden in Avoriaz. The resort is designed to be fully skiable. Other transport around the resort includes horse-drawn sleighs and snowcats during winter.
31-476: One of the principal owners of Avoriaz is the tourism and real estate development company Pierre & Vacances , whose founder, Gerard Bremont, took an active part in building the station. Around 1965, former French downhill olympic champion Jean Vuarnet was given the task of developing the skiing of Morzine and came up with the first plan of a new skiing area on the north side of the Hauts Fort mountain and
62-650: A joint venture with Deutsche Bank , it acquired Center Parcs Europe, a large resort parks company. In July 2001, it acquired the ski resort operations of Groupe Washington at the Valmoral resort and, in September of that year, Club Méditerranée 's Maeva SA. This operation made Pierre & Vacances the leader in the French market. In 2002, the Italian company Valtur was added to Pierre & Vacances' portfolio. In 2003,
93-481: A list of previous members, see: " List of Académie des Beaux-Arts members: Sculpture " For a list of previous members, see: " List of Académie des Beaux-Arts members: Architecture " For a list of previous members, see: " List of Académie des Beaux-Arts members: Engraving " For a list of previous members, see: " List of Académie des Beaux-Arts members: Music " For a list of previous members, see: " List of Académie des Beaux-Arts members: Unattached " For
124-542: A number of occasions. Among others the now infamous stage win of American Floyd Landis in 2006 following which he was tested for and convicted of doping. 46°11′27″N 6°46′30″E / 46.19083°N 6.77500°E / 46.19083; 6.77500 Pierre %26 Vacances Groupe Pierre & Vacances Center Parcs ( French pronunciation: [ɡʁup pjɛʁ e vakɑ̃s sɑ̃tœʁ paʁk] ) specializes in tourism services, providing holiday and entertainment villages , leisure activity residences and hotels under
155-480: A relatively low cost. The new owners also received a small, but guaranteed, percentage from rental fees and could exchange their properties with anyone within the Pierre & Vacances network. The new concept enabled the company to grow without taking on debt. In 1988, Pierre & Vacances started to acquire rival companies. The first purchases included Geer (developments Cap Esterel, Les Coches and Port-Bourgenay on
186-429: A resort on the main circuit of one of the largest skiing areas in the world, Les Portes du Soleil , named after a pass between France and Switzerland. The Avoriaz part of the skiing area consists of about 130 km of piste. The entire Portes du Soleil offers between 650 and 700 km of piste – nearly all of it linked by more than 200 lifts. The total lift capacity is close to 250,000 persons per hour, making it one of
217-449: A skiing "village" and resort , called Avoriaz , which adopted innovative concepts. Vehicles were forbidden inside the village and children had their own sectors. The style of the buildings was designed to harmonize with the surrounding landscape. Interest in the resort increased in 1973, when Brémond (a film buff) inaugurated a science fiction festival. The company adopted the name Pierre & Vacances in 1975, developing more resorts in
248-455: A stage finish of the Tour de France 6 times. First time was in 1975 with Spanish Vicente López Carril the winner. In 1994 Piotr Ugrumov won a short mountain time trial between Morzine and Avoriaz. In 2010 Avoriaz was once again host of a Tour de France finish - the first mountain stage of the race won by Andy Schleck . Furthermore, Morzine in the valley below Avoriaz has hosted stage finishes on
279-468: Is a beautiful valley with a number of red and blue runs plus a single black. It also has The Stash - a conceptual snowpark developed by Burton and based on ecological principles. It is the only one of its kind in France. There are a number of restaurants and a small village at the bottom of the valley. The Fornet area is a large bowl with basically skiing everywhere between huge rocks and crevasses. From one of
310-524: Is mainly controlled by Gerard Brémond using a complex system of holding companies as shareholders. Acad%C3%A9mie des Beaux Arts The Académie des Beaux-Arts ( French pronunciation: [akademi de boz‿aʁ] ; lit. ' Academy of Fine Arts ' ) is a French learned society based in Paris . It is one of the five academies of the Institut de France . The current president of
341-452: Is no longer a fashionable destination as such but more of a mainstream winter-resort with predominantly self-catering guests staying under more modest conditions. For the Winter 2011/12 ski season Avoriaz has undergone many changes including the development of a brand new area with 8 buildings housing a total of 450 ski apartments including L'Amara, Crozats and L'Electra residences. Avoriaz is
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#1732790901358372-466: Is pretty easy though. This area is also ideal for off-piste although caution is advised since this is an area with frequent avalanches. From the Haut-Forts top-station it is possible to ski directly back to Avoriaz by red or blue slopes. Avoriaz is unique amongst the 1960s purpose built ski resorts. Gerard Bremont hired young architects Jacques Labro, Jean-Jacques Orzoni and Jean-Marc Roques to design
403-764: The Académie des Beaux Arts , the Equerre d'Argent and silver medal from the Architectural Académie. Portes du Soleil is among the top downhill mountain biking stations in Europe and by far the largest in France. Several of the more testing routes embark from Avoriaz, and the local branch of the French Ski-School (ESF), change into a downhill biking school and bike rental centre each year during July and August. A number of chairlifts operate during
434-532: The Mediterranean Sea ) and Sogerva and Port du Crouesty (facilities on the Atlantic coast). Pierre & Vacances emerged relatively unscathed from economic crisis in the 1990s, and accelerated its expansion by purchasing struggling rivals such as Société des Montagnes de l'Arc (1993), Rocher Soleil (1996) Sofap Loisirs and Pont-Royal (1997). Pont-Royal was a key piece in the company's growth, because
465-470: The 20 festivals. The posters were originally for sale in different sizes, including postcards, but are hard to find today. The posters are on permanent display at the restaurant "Le Bistro" in the resort-centre. The event was succeeded by the similar Festival International du Film Fantastique de Gérardmer . Avoriaz and its "mothertown" Morzine have been frequent hosts to the Tour de France . Avoriaz has hosted
496-600: The Académie granted the Prix Rossini for excellence in libretto or music composition. Constituted around the notion of multidisciplinarity, the Académie des Beaux-Arts brings together sixty-three members within nine artistic sections, sixteen foreign associate members and sixty-three corresponding members. The members are grouped into nine sections: Current members: For a list of previous members, see: " List of Académie des Beaux-Arts members: Painting ". For
527-491: The Fornet-bowl. Later, lift connections were made to the east and south, creating a vast linked skiing area covering France and Switzerland. Avoriaz as a resort is the brainchild of Gerard Bremont, the son of a leading French industrialist whom Jean Vuarnet asked to invest in the project. Gerard Bremont - at the time a notable member of the French jetset - engaged 3 newly educated and highly talented young architects to design
558-668: The French State had granted it permission to construct over 20,000 square metres in the Provence region. The company quickly adapted to the new market demands. In 1998, it launched the "eco-village" in the Picardy region and opened its first facilities outside France, in Martinique and Guadeloupe . Pierre & Vacances became a holding company , gathering all its subsidiaries under its name. In 1999, Pierre & Vacances
589-478: The Pierre & Vacances' holding became the sole owner of Central Parcs. In 2007, Pierre & Vacances and Accor formed a joint venture to create a new company, called Adagio, with the aim of developing city residences in Europe. That year it also acquired a real estate development company focused on Mediterranean style villages for elderly people (Les Senioriales SA) and the Sunparks Group. In 2009,
620-476: The academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot , a French architect . The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a merger of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture (Academy of Painting and Sculpture, founded 1648), the Académie de musique (Academy of Music, founded in 1669) and the Académie d'architecture (Academy of Architecture, founded in 1671). Currently, the Académie des Beaux-Arts provides several awards including five dedicated prizes: Previously
651-631: The brands Pierre & Vacances, Maeva, Center Parcs , Sunparks , and Adagio (the last in partnership with Accor ). The headquarters of the company is in France and the core area of the company's activities is France, but it also has facilities in Belgium , Mauritius, the Netherlands , Switzerland, Austria , Germany, Italy and Spain. In 1967, Gérard Brémond (the future developer and main owner of Pierre et Vacances) and Jean Vuarnet (a French Olympic ski champion) entered partnership to open
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#1732790901358682-466: The connection for more skiers and snowboarders. Plans are underway to increase the connections between Morzine and Avoriaz, with the new Prodain lift opened at the end of the 2012–2013 season and an extension down the valley into the centre of Morzine planned. The Avoriaz pistes are divided in 4 sectors: The Lindaret, Haut-Forts, Fornet and Super Morzine. The latter being mainly connection to Morzine and heavily used by ski-schools and beginners. The Lindaret
713-446: The mountains and then on the coast. This new development area brought it accusations of being a company that "filled up the French coast with cement." By the end of the 70s, the company started to leave the real estate development and refocused itself on tourist services. It introduced a concept called "Nouvelle Propriété" (New Property), which let the tourists actually own properties inside the Pierre & Vacances' vacation villages at
744-489: The name was changed from "Groupe Pierre & Vacances" to "Groupe Pierre & Vacances Central Parcs". The company operates approximately 51,000 hotels, apartments, houses and similar accommodation (236,000 beds). It is still present in the property development sector through the subsidiaries PV-CP Support Services BV, Pierre & Vacances Investissement XXXXVIII, Pierre & Vacances Investissement XXXXIX and Les Senioriales SA. Groupe Pierre & Vacances Central Parcs
775-512: The resort and within a few years Avoriaz and especially the Hotel Dromont and its restaurant and Discothèque was proclaimed the "Saint Tropez de Neige" - the centre of jet-set skiing. At a later stage other former elite skiers such as Isabelle Mir and Annie Famose got involved - the latter today running the famous ski-kindergarten. The two of them jointly giving name to one of the leading ski- and fashion shops, The Mirfamose. Today Avoriaz
806-619: The resort. Loosely inspired by some of the ideas of famous Swiss architect Le Corbusier , they went on to design a unique resort - high rise buildings (12- 16 floors) with acute angles and a close similarity to the mountains that surrounded them - the result being that seen from afar Avoriaz blends in very well with the mountains. The Dromonts hotel was designed by Labro and was the first building finished in March 1966. The buildings are almost entirely covered in red cedar wood. The 3 original architects of Avoriaz have all won awards for their work such as
837-538: The ridges around the Fornet bowl one can test the famous La Chavanette - also known as The Swiss Wall, one of the steepest pistes in Europe - it is not part of the Avoriaz system but belongs to neighbouring Swiss resort Les Crosets . Haut-Forts is the most demanding area with a number of black runs starting at 2,400 and ending at 1,100 metres, some of which are for experts only. The world cup piste - although rated black -
868-607: The summer to ensure lift capacity for the rapidly rising number of downhill mountain bikers. The biking of Avoriaz is concentrated in the Lindaret Valley with connections further on towards Châtel and Les Crosets. There is a large number of tracks around Morzine and Les Gets as well. This water park with over 1500 tropical plants and 183 tropical trees opened in July 2012, offering an aqua leisure experience in tropical surroundings. For twenty years, from 1973 to 1993, Avoriaz
899-485: The two largest linked lift networks in the world alongside Les Trois Vallées (Les Portes du Soleil having slightly more lifts but with slightly less capacity per hour). Avoriaz is directly linked to Swiss resort Les Crosets and French resorts Chatel and Morzine. The connection between Avoriaz, and specifically the Lindaret bowl and Chatel has recently been upgraded to a 6-person chair, replacing an old chair and opening up
930-522: Was host to the Avoriaz International Fantastic Film Festival (French: Festival international du film fantastique d'Avoriaz )—a film festival mainly devoted to science fiction and horror movies. Steven Spielberg 's debut, Duel , was the first prizewinner of the festival. Other winners include Peter Jackson , David Cronenberg and David Lynch (twice). There is a quite interesting series of posters covering
961-588: Was listed on the Paris stock exchange . In March of that year, it purchased the resort chain Orion from Whitehall et Westmont Hospitality . Then, it entered into a joint venture with Beni Stabili with the aim of purchasing properties in Italy. In April 2000, Pierre & Vacances acquired Grand Dorado (later renamed Center Parcs), one of the leading companies in the Benelux's tourism accommodation market. In March 2001, in