Morzine Source Summer 19 ISSUU
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12<br />
www.morzinesourcemagazine.com<br />
BEYOND THE LAKE<br />
Bringing Ardent to life in the <strong>Summer</strong><br />
BY CHLOE HARDY<br />
The télécabine d’Ardent is one of the best ways to access Avoriaz in the winter;<br />
you’ve got the ski bus, a huge free car park and it takes you directly into the<br />
Lindarets bowl. However in the summer, it’s another story. Unless you fancy a<br />
long uphill walk and a few chairlift rides, the only way to access the Lindarets<br />
bowl and its biggest summer attraction, the goat village, is to drive up the thin and<br />
windy Col de Joux Verte, navigating your way past other cars and numerous road<br />
bikers, only to battle for a parking space once you get to the top.<br />
Last winter, one man decided to see<br />
if this could be changed. Marc Païs,<br />
owner of les Sculpteurs du Lac and<br />
Happy Hours Bar and Ski Rental<br />
brought the issue to the public’s<br />
attention. He started an online petition<br />
to gather support to open the bubble<br />
during the summer months.<br />
“We are fortunate to live in a beautiful<br />
environment, to enjoy it and to benefit<br />
from it at the same time,” Marc told<br />
us. “Our planet today is damaged by<br />
the impact of man. Thinking about<br />
saving it is the least we can do. To<br />
open the Ardent gondola in summer<br />
seems to me to be the first step in this<br />
direction.”<br />
While Marc’s reasons for pressing<br />
on with his petition are mainly<br />
environmental, he’s also convinced that<br />
running the gondola will open up more<br />
summer activities in the little hamlet of<br />
Ardent and create more employment<br />
opportunities for local people.<br />
It just so happens Marc’s timing was<br />
right when he bought up the issue<br />
at a Montriond municipal council<br />
meeting back in February. The council<br />
announced that it had already been<br />
contemplating the idea and would be<br />
extending the free bus line to Ardent<br />
this summer. The council also put in<br />
a request with SERMA, the Avoriaz lift<br />
operating company, to see if a summer<br />
gondola would be feasible.<br />
“It’s an excellent start, isn’t it?” Says<br />
Marc, and we couldn’t agree more.<br />
The free Montriond shuttle bus has<br />
only gone as far as Lac de Montriond<br />
in previous summers, but this year<br />
it will carry on via the Bout du Lac<br />
restaurant, the Ardent waterfall and<br />
run all the way up to the Ardent car<br />
park, providing tourists, especially<br />
families with young children, with a<br />
wider range of car-free options than<br />
ever before.<br />
As for the gondola, SERMA and the<br />
Mairie de Montriond have informed us<br />
that it won’t be open this summer, but<br />
don’t lose hope just yet. It’s estimated<br />
that it will cost €36,000 to open the<br />
gondola during the summer and that<br />
closing the Col de Joux Verte to cars<br />
during this time would be preferable,<br />
but before a final decision can be made<br />
further studies need to be conducted.<br />
This includes measuring the number of<br />
people travelling to Lindarets during<br />
the summer, commercial activity in the<br />
area and how else the Col de Joux Verte<br />
is used during this time.<br />
Watch this space.<br />
Visit Change.org to view Marc’s petition. It made it to its goal of 500 signatures, but you can still sign and it will, of course, help the cause if as many<br />
people as possible show their support. Visit our website, morzinesourcemagazine.com to view this summer’s bus timetable.<br />
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