Frozen in time
Are you bored of the typical chocolate-box resort? Head to Flaine instead – a retro winter holiday destination for architecture lovers who want to combine their passion for design with hitting the slopes
WORDS: JOHN C SILCOX
PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOFFER RUDQUIST
Shut your eyes and imagine an alpine ski resort after the first fall of winter snow. What do you see? Quaint pinewood chalets with rough stone chimneys and carved gable-ends nestled in a sea of white? Now tear everything down and replace it with a lot of grey concrete. The snow is still there but Heidi’s picturesque village has been flattened and what’s taken its place can best be described to the untrained eye as a 1960s council housing estate.
Welcome to Flaine: a brutalist masterpiece of Bauhaus architecture that smashes the stereotype of chocolate-box alpine ski resorts and celebrates concrete and harsh lines in every form. Forty years ago Flaine was one of Europe’s most fashionable resorts and now it’s back in the limelight, after being chosen to house a new project from one of France’s leading hotel companies. The three-star Le Totem hotel offers an enticing modern twist on retro design and was created by the Sibuet family, farmers turned innovative hoteliers who have a reputation for linking elegance to history.
To find out what all the fuss is about, we have driven to France in the new Audi A6 allroad quattro, equipped with a wealth of official Audi winter accessories. Cresting the mountain and descending on the resort is one of those Marmite moments: you either love it or hate it. The natural beauty of the place is undeniable, and you can still imagine what it looked like in the late 1960s when Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer – creator of the UNESCO building in Paris – arrived in the area ready to develop it. ‘What a wonderful site!’ he exclaimed. ‘How do we avoid spoiling it?’
Right from the early design stages, Breuer was determined to respect nature. He made it his mission not to disturb the natural surroundings and to integrate Flaine into the mountains. In doing so, the general layout is able to blend in with the environment’s contours, and the different resort levels cannot be seen from one to the other.
Breuer used a number of other tricks to finish the effect. The colour of the concrete was chosen to mimic the natural rock that surrounds it, and the resort is based on a technical tunnel network, so that not a single electric cable is visible from the exterior to preserve the harsh lines interrupting the landscape. Cable car and gondola lift stations are also on the same level as the ski runs, and the entire station can be accessed by foot. Not only does this avoid the unsightly mess of traffic jams but it means that, once visitors have parked up on arrival, they have the luxury of not needing their vehicles again until they leave.
Flaine is a feast for the eyes and boasts a wealth of monumental works of art by renowned masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Dubuffet and Victor Vasarely. But the striking buildings remain the stars of the show. The imposing ‘Bételgeuse’ residential block was listed in the French Historical Monuments Survey in 1991 as was the emblematic hotel, with its sun terrace that hangs overlooking a precipice.
Inside there is an emphasis on informality and shared space. Rooms are small but the communal areas are large, designed with cosy fittings to balance the stark Bauhaus concrete interior. The open-plan downstairs includes a rental shop with coffee shop, as well as a prominent island bar that divides the dining zone from the soft seating. The focus on design is well illustrated by the furniture and no two tables are alike, guests can perch on stools at the bar, sink into animal furs in a convivial circle or pick a romantic twosome by the window. Soft furnishings add comfort to the rooms by softening the harsh concrete walls and bright Navajo textiles contrast handsomly with the smooth concrete interior of the comunal spaces. Finally each one of the 96 private rooms has a wall decorated with bold black graphics on a white background, and complemented by cupboards with black-and-white cowhide doors
Visiting such a hub of design offers a fitting backdrop to photograph the A6 allroad quattro on and the smart lines of the car are enhanced by its surroundings. Audi’s engineers have been mindful to maintain the elegance of the A6 as well as equipping it with near-SUV-like off-road capability. Even with a roof box loaded with skiing gear, the car remains well-balanced on the road, and it is a delight to explore the surrounding roads that twist their way through the landscape. But in this environment, driving is, for once, a secondary attraction, and the best way to discover the mountainside is by unclipping a pair of skis from the car’s ski rack and heading out onto the resort’s 165 miles of pistes. Flaine has one of the best snow records in the Alps, so better to make the most of it.
