Postcard from St Gervais - Conrad Sutcliffe
Monday February 8, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Turn the clock back to 1900 and the ancient French spa town of St Gervais was the place to visit in the Mont Blanc area, rather than nearby Chamonix or what was then the youthful resort of Megève.

Upmarket Chamonix has gone from strength to strength over the past 100 years or so, while Megève has a faithful following among the well-heeled.

Now St Gervais, which shares the same lift pass as Megève, is fighting back.

Under the direction of mayor Jean-Marc Peillex, tourism chiefs are steadily increasing the number of tourists beds in the town.

On the way, hopefully for 2010-11, is the Monte Bianco complex in the heart of the town, a club-style hotel just 200 metres from the main cable car up the mountain.

The 88 bedroom hotel will nudge the total number of bed spaces in St Gervais closer to the 28,000 mark.

It is a 15-minute ride in the cable car to Le Bettex, where the pistes start for real, but a ride that's worth it for the potential savings that can be made by staying down the mountain.

€2.50 for a beerUsing that age-old comparison indicator, the price of a 33cl glass of pression, a typical St Gervais noggin at €2.50 is value indeed in any ski resort.

You can get one on the mountain for the same price, at Sous Les Freddy's, if you know where to look.

Mayor Peillex has a good idea where tourists are going to come from, once word starts to spread about St Gervais and its attractions.

"St Gervais has a lot to offer people with families who have visited Chamonix when they were younger and are familiar with the region but don't want the same extremes," said Ms Peillex.

"For people who have enjoyed skiing in Megève but didn't enjoy the prices, St Gervais offers cheaper skiing in the same slopes."

A Mont Blanc lift pass covers almost 450km of slopes in three linked areas and includes use of a ski bus through St Gervais which runs from 8am-6.30pm, linking hotels and chalets with the cable car.

We are runing an occassional series on PlanetSKI of the slightly less well-known ski areas. See here a report from Evolene in Switzerland.

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