VAL D'ISERE RESORT HISTORY
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 J Kelagopian |
In 218 BC Hannibal crossed the Alps and is reputed to have led his army through Moutiers.
In 1032 Savoy fell under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire and from the twelfth century concentrated on expanding its territory becoming known as “Gatekeeper to the Alps”.
In the fifteenth century Savoy purchased the county of Geneva becaming a Duchy but just one hundred years later Geneva won back its independence.
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In the sixteenth century the capital of Savoy was transferred from Chambery to Turin.
During the eighteenth century Savoy was under the rule of the Kings of Piedmont-Sardinia who divided the territory into two French departments, Mont Blanc and Leman.
However during the unification of Italy in 1860 the Duchy of Savoy was broken up yet again and Savoy was ceded to Napleon III. Savoy was French again.
However the area suffered a period of economic stagnation and the region had difficulty competing industrially.
During world war II Haute-Savoie was occupied first by Italy and then by Germany and parts of the area became renowned as a centre of the Resistance.
In the last fifty or so years Haute-Savoie has become known for its tourism in skiing but still retains its traditional patoi language, a mixture of local French and Italian which many locals still use. |
In the Summer of 1929 that a small man on holiday from Paris made the journey up to Val d'Isère. The road was just a donkey track, was perilous and because of the threat of avalanches and stone falls only a few brave souls came this way. What greeted Jacques Mouflier was a verdant, hidden valley, barely emerging from the subsistence agriculture of the middle ages. Val d'Isère was huddled around its 17th Century octagonal church spire, far from the reach of deadly winter avalanches. A lush pine forest separated the 5km to Fornet and legend had it that this village had been occupied since the middle ages by Sarrisans, mineral prospectors in the surrounding mountains. Lower down the hamlet of la Daille was dominated by the mighty Bellevard peak. High up towards the border with Italy glaciers twinkled in the summer sun. At that time the valley had just four hotels, the Auberge Morris dating from 1888 followed by the Parisien in 1900 and the Bellevue in 1919. These were open only in the summer for the benefit of botanists and walkers. Water came straight from the mountain streams and the telephone and electricity were unknown.
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Mouflier saw the potential for developing a ski resort but lacking the money of the Rothschilds in Megève he had to set about convincing the locals. In 1932 the Hotel de Paris opened for the winter and in 1936 the first drag lift was built on the slopes of the Solaise mountain. In 1938, work started on the first cable car, the Téléphérique de Solaise. Jean Matter, president of the French Ski Federation (FFS) predicted that "it is utter madness to build a ski station at Val d'Isère, failure is certain!"
At the end of the 1960s an agreement was reached between the lift company STVI and their neighbours at Tignes - STGM and a lift was opened at la Daille in linking the two resorts and in 1972 links were opened with the Fornet sector. The area is known as l'Espace Killy after Val d'Isère's Olympic hero Jean Claud-Killy who picked up a record 3 medals at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics.
The 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics were a spur to redevelopment in a more Savoyard style with the use of Lauze (stone roof tiles) quarried from the Manchet valley. The Face du Bellevarde was used for the men's downhill race as part of the games with the Daille funival, the first of its kind in France, providing rapid access to the summit.
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