It's a beautiful, small-format book that the children of baby boomers have the impression of leafing through like a family album, with, in mind, the joyful memories of the first “ski vacations”.
On the cover, a black and white photo taken in the 1960s. Two peasants all smiles in their berets, sitting in an egg hanging from a cable above snowy fields, which takes them to the top.
It's all there: in those radiant faces.
And in this neon pink like we wore on the slopes in the 1980s, which brightens up the title:
A history of winter sports resorts
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.
A mountain book, whose publishing house, Glénat, is from Isère (its museum headquarters are in Grenoble) and whose author, Guillaume Desmurs, is Savoyard, originally from Les Menuires.
This tasty book, written with a lively pen and illustrated with rare, little-known, forgotten images, recounts the epic of villages, in France and abroad, whose destiny has been changed by alpine skiing.
Destinations which, thanks to global warming and the energy crisis, must now reinvent themselves.
LE FIGARO. - Why this book?
Guillaume Desmurs. -
Winter sports resorts are at a pivotal period, of transition, and therefore of turbulence.
But most of them have not yet started their transformation.
What is done is on the margins, it's fun, decoration.
Only Métabief in the Jura has taken the decision to stop skiing in 2035. The central problem is real estate, which drives all development decisions.
Skiing may be doomed but it is still profitable, so we continue, we do what we know.
This book is a tool for understanding what prevents stations from adapting.
We cannot understand the present, nor project ourselves if we do not know the past, the construction, with what biases, what dynamics, what actors.
You are a skier, grew up in Les Menuires. Is your "maternal station" the one you recommend or has another dethroned it?
Les Menuires, Val Thorens, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville.
The older I get, the more I love them.
My mother had opened the very first press center in Val Thorens.
I like the state of mind up there, we are the greatest!
And then, between the domain and the municipality of the Vallée des Belleville, there is like a social contract which means that everyone has worked in the same direction.
Today, I live in Annecy.
And when the other day my 20-year-old son wanted to go skiing in the 3 Valleys, having lunch in a mountain restaurant, I was amazed.
Living elsewhere has allowed me to realize this extraordinary possibility of moving from one valley to another in this immense naturally connected domain, with the view changing as you move.
Read also3-Vallées: ski slopes, passes, new resorts... Our advice for this winter 2022/2023
Guillaume Desmurs, in the mountains Morgane Raylat
Find the other episodes of the series "A book under the tree"
EPISODE 1 -
Marie Couderc and Nil Hoppenot: "On foot, every meter is part of the journey"
EPISODE 2 -
Lucie Azema: "Tea has both a notion of adventure and violence"
EPISODE 3 -
François Sarano: "I have never been afraid when swimming with sharks"
You write that Zermatt is the
“
perfect
” resort
and La Grave the
“
ultimate
” resort
.
Could you be more precise ?
These are subjective choices.
Zermatt is the cliché of the resort, with an untouched village, a Swiss atmosphere, an incredible domain.
It is fantasized perfection.
La Grave comes down to a single gondola that takes you to the top.
It's a skier's dream.
"Sliding is a dream", you say. Why ?
First of all, it's play. A game of imbalance, controlled, which you need constantly to put you in motion.
Then, because sliding, skiing, embodies speed, a cardinal value of the 20th century.
The 1910s, 20s, 30s gave birth to modernity, with the fixing of the heel which was one of the great transformations, crucial for French skiing.
But this modernity was structured at a time when energy was available, inexpensive, unlimited.
We are coming to an end.
How will we slide tomorrow, without snow?
You also point out that summer skiing, on the glaciers, was. Are you pessimistic for the future?
Nope !
The cover of my book, with these two funny peasants, says that in the 1960s, these mountain people who lived on agropastoralism threw themselves into the unknown with great courage and modesty.
Stations may shut down due to lack of customers.
Without artificial snow, there is no skiing.
The inhabitants of the valleys have resources, ideas.
The transition does not go fast enough, far enough, but it has begun.
Let's be optimistic!
Read alsoRanking of the 200 French ski resorts: ski pass prices, snow cover... which one is right for you?
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A short history of winter sports resorts
, Guillaume Desmurs, Beautiful mountain book, 192 pages, 25.95 euros.
A short history of winter sports resorts,
by Guillaume Desmurs Glénat / Press photo
