Facts and Pictures of Flaine Ski Village Resort (part of Le Grand Massif) in the French Alps

Bonjour! Flaine alpine village is one of the ski village resorts in the Alps that was built for the purpose of wintersport tourism back in the late 60â€™s.

The village is described by many as dull, dreary and utterly concrete. Which is understandable because not everyone appreciates architecture. The buildings in Flaine are made in Bauhaus style by award-winning Bauhaus master architect Marcel Breuer (commissioned by the resort founders, Eric Boissonnas and GÃ©rard Chervaz). This might surprise the critics and naysayers but Flaine is the only ski resort built in the 1960â€™s to be listed in the French Historical Monuments Survey.

I actually like the clean cut of the design of the buildings here. They represent indeed a different era but you can see that it depicts a strong basis of form and function, and art as well. The Dutchman however thinks they are ugly, he said they are bunker buildings and reminds him of East Germany during communism times. Well, not to me though.

We booked our wintersport vacation here mainly because of the slopes. We have always booked at low key ski resorts that has a huge ski terrain. We like the quietness it offers and the less traffic on the piste. The Le Grand Massif has 267 kilometres of slope run, and among the 5 ski resorts that form the skiing area (Flaine, Les Carroz, Samoens, Morillion, Sixt), Flaine is the biggest with a wide access to different types of lifts and slopes. The combination of blue and red slopes here are balanced as well which is very important to us.

Anyway, it was snowing the other day (Tuesday) the whole day in Flaine so I took a day off from skiing. Later though in the afternoon the sun shone but only for a short window of time which gave me the chance to take pictures without getting sidetracked from the snow falling.

The weather in the Alps can be very erratic. In fact we havenâ€™t had any good weather for this skiing holiday. Yesterday Wednesday I skied again in the thick mist. It was not as bad as the other day before because there were many people on the slopes so you can gauge the height and depth of your surroundings. The weather forecast however has promised some sun and blue skies today Thursday and tomorrow Friday as well. I am very excited as we really want to ski down to Les Carroz and Samoens.

Flaine main village is divided into 3 parts:

Flaine Foret at 1700 metres (this is where we stayed)
Flaine Forum at 1600 metres
Front de Neige at 1500 metres

Le Hameau de Flaine is a new village addition on a high altitude located before reaching Flaine Foret. This is the village with charming Savoyard wooden chalets overlooking Flaine. The drawback of this village is that you are dependent on the ski bus to bring you to the piste and the main village.

Interesting to note:

No Car Zone Policy: The village is a no car zone and you have to take a parking ticket to get in. The first 1.5 hours is free after that you will have to pay â‚¬8 an hour. There are cheaper parking options at Front de Neige. We however took a private parking at our apartment for â‚¬60 (a week).
Village Lift: There are 2 passenger lifts connecting Flaine Foret and Flaine Forum. The one at the shopping gallery seems to be open 24 hours.
Alcohol: We paid a whopping â‚¬12.40 for 2 beers at the White Pub in Flaine Forum. We thought this was expensive?
Supermarket: The Spar supermarket in Flaine Foret is ridiculously overpriced at 3x the normal price. Sherpa in Flaine Forum is better priced.
Bar and Apres ski scene: Apres ski in Flaine is nothing to be excited about. The Flying Dutchman bar that had great reviews in the past is closed (not sure if temporarily but there was a sign on the door saying that the government has forced them to close down the business). There are only 3 other bars that are promising to check out: The White Pub in Flaine Forum (your best bet) and the Le Perdrix Noire (in the shopping gallery) and Le Diamant Noir (French style) in Flaine Foret.
Dining: Eating out is not really cheap here. Budget for 2 persons : â‚¬50-70 for 1 course + drink + coffee | â‚¬80-100 for 2 courses ++ | â‚¬110-130 for 3 courses++
Ski access: Ski lifts and gondolas (cable cars) are everywhere in the village! The nearest lift to our apartment is 100 metres and I can ski down to the doorstep.
Ski slopes: Lots of blue and red slopes in Flaine. The snow quality is really good. I will post a separate skiing review soon.

Nevertheless, I managed to take many pictures of Flaine ski resort during my skiing day off. Brace yourself as they are a lot! And judge for yourself if it is a dreary and tired-looking place.

The chalets at Le Hameau.

Flaine Foret.

Flaine is like a bowl.The village lies in the middle surrounded by mountains, pine trees and slope runs (pistes).

Bauhaus architecture.

Can you spot the skiers? I have scaled this slope run a few times.

Flaine Forum 100 metres below Flaine Foret.

This is the lift connecting to Le Carroz, Morillon and Samoens. A number of the lifts and slopes connecting to these villages were closed. The bad weather did not help as well, so we only were able to reach Morillon, not the main village but the higher altitude village.

Bauhaus and Modernist art of Picasso: La TÃªte de Femme.

Restaurants and cafes on the piste but walkable from the village.

Flaine is often times referred to as a bowl. The village is in the middle and surrounded with pistes and lots of guaranteed snow.

The chalets at Le Hameau. We were looking at these chalets as well but most of them are rented as whole chalet which we find too big for just the 2 of us. Moreover, they are located quite far from the lifts and slopes. You will de dependent on the ski bus if you stay here.