 Poster: A snowHead
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Has Les Manures-Reberty been improved or erased as an offence to the environment?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@boredsurfin, Hadn't noticed!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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La Toussuire?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'm with you Aime La Plagne. You can shape high rise concrete like mountains all you like but, for me, it's still concrete high rise. I actually quite like Bellecote. It's like skiing into a huge amphitheatre. It's also shaped so all the balconies face slopewards and slightly towards each other which makes it great for firing rockets at each other on New Year's eve.
Tonale in Italy also has some of the worlds ugliest ski accommodation.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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A lot of theses buildings are not to most people's taste. But (just for a bit of balance) the 'brutalist beton' has allowed thousands upon thousands of not so well paid folk to take up skiing at a reasonable price - and that's a good thing.
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@chocksaway, why is it a good thing?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@chocksaway, they have brought the French masses to the mountains and would be difficult to replace the beds with things which we now think as more appropriate to the environment.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Those various buildings (and there were some equally ghastly examples from Les Arcs on another thread recently) at least have the advantage of being far less of an eyesore than a caravan or mobile home park which would house the same number of people - and there are plenty of those in the UK.
I find the "mountain shaped" building in La Plagne far less objectionable than some of the other examples.
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How can anyone think of any of these places as ugly (with the exception of Milton Keynes and Tamworth of course) to quote Queen
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
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You know it makes sense.
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ooh ye olde worlde ski thread
at least with Avoriaz, you can look the other way
and you can hide concrete behind some wood
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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The places are beautiful. The buildings are not.
I think when you ski into these concrete places you don't think too much of it .. until you travel to Austria or Switzerland and see how pretty a ski village can actually look!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Notice that this thread started some time ago but will chip in anyway!
I will add Les Orres 1650 to the list. First place I ever went and was a bit shocked at how ugly it was.
Les Menuires - although haven't been there for a long time so maybe it has been improved now.
Puy St Vincent
La Plagne - most of it.
I find Flaine an eyesore in summer but ok in winter as long as you don't go to close to the centre and the concrete steps etc. I think Flaine gets away with its modern architecture because the buildings aren't high rise and the surrounding scenery is so good. Some of the La plagne villages stand out like a sore thumb due to the lack of trees.
I quite like the architecture of Les Arcs even Arc 2000 (it is only when you get up close that it looks like a 60s shopping precinct)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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there are pretty ski villages in France and some fairly ugly ones in Austria. This beauty is in Switzerland. 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I am amused by all the mass-market tourists recoiling with horror at the mass-market buildings put up to accommodate them. I mean us. I am one too. That is a member of the most fortunate generation ever, that lives a life - yes, including ski holidays - previously only available to the aristocracy. These places are akin to multi-storey car parks and that is because we all have cars too. Faced with that sort of problem, I am appreciative of the architects' ability to create something effective and (to me at least) meaningful.
Avoriaz imitates the cliffs behind the blocks. I have already given my response to Aime. I think they are better than the sprawl of smaller buildings that would be needed to meet the demand otherwise.
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@Chris Bish, Do you live in a tower block at home? I don't so I don't want to live in a tower block on holiday either!
You don't have to take your car on holiday - you can take the train to many places.
There are plenty of resorts with appealing architecture and no high rise blocks. However this is a thread about ugly places 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@snowymum, Interesting concept. I camp and live in mountain huts when on holiday and sometimes stay in hotels. I live in none of these at home and would not like to. I have no problem staying in high rise buildings when on holiday. What I want is to be warm and dry and be close to what I have really come on holiday to do. The outside appearance is completely irrelevant.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@johnE,  I have paid very good money to spend a holiday on a yacht with cramped bunks, wholly inadequate cooking facilities, practically no washing facilities and a loo to strike terror, with a laminated set of instructions which, if not followed to the letter, will result in your having to dismantle all the tubes and get rid of the blockage...... 
We were once in our old, small camper van in a very wet field in Scotland, in pouring rain, blowing a hoolie. Trying to sleep. Son no 1 pipes up "Mum, we have a house with 5 bedrooms and two bathrooms, what the hell are we doing here?"
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Choosing a resort based on what the buildings look like is like choosing a date based on what coat they are wearing.
Generally when the weather is appropriate I am on the hill, and when it is not I am indoors, so what the outside of my building looks like it pretty much irrelevant (too me anyway).
That being said it took me a while to warm to the Bauhaus style of Flaine, and the utilitarian approach of Avoriaz ( remember it was desigend by Vuarnet in the 60's, an era when recreational drug taking was prevalent).
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@johnE, Fair point. I've also stayed in tents in the back of beyond, on a small yacht etc - however they are still attractive structures even if the level of accommodation is basic! I have also remembered that I have stayed in a few high rise places in my time but these were in modern cities like Vancouver.
If I had a choice of not skiing at all or going skiing and staying in an ugly building / resort of course I'd go skiing whatever the accommodation. However the look of the resort and accommodation is definitely a factor in my choice.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Cervinia gets a few mentions here but I was pleasantly surprised when I went there and found it not too bad. Flaine a shocker. Perisher in Australia is pretty bad.
I haven't been there but is Sestriere worthy of a nomination?
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@under a new name, Because it allowed me and many others to develop a passion for skiing at a budget. I then set my self some goals and retired very early and now live in not such an ugly block (but I can see some). If you are not trolling and you wish skiing to remain the privilege of the elite then you will find lots of people in Tignes that would disagree with you.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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These threads on architecture always amaze me, Some of the most visited ski resorts on the planet get slagged off every time and yet there must be a reason they are the most popular resorts year after year...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@chocksaway, we are not all here to agree. Personally, Tignes looks as ugly to me as a hatfull of @rseholes but that is not a judgement of the residents or people who go there.
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They are convenient and maximise skiing time. They don't also have to be pretty; clearly the architecture is low down the priority list for many people for whom the skiing is everything. These days, as I don't (can't) any longer ski from first lift to last, and spend time doing lot of other things (including looking out of the window) I would prefer to go somewhere with reasonable attractive buildings, as well as great mountain scenery.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Juddernaut, I wasn't arguing that a particular resort or another is ugly - I was taking the point of view that these big blocks have democratised skiing which I think is a good thing - so I was replying to @underanewname who inferred that it wasn't.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| stevew wrote: |
| It all comes down to IMHO that the French had a style bypass in the 60's / 70's and it was only in the mid 80's that they found the legendary French style again and started trying to put some of their mistake right .. even if it is a bit choclate boxy at times! |
That's it in a nutshell. Worldwide, architecture in the 1960s/1970s had a style bypass. Unfortunately, this was just about the time the French decided to massively expand their skiing infrastructure.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Le Corbier in the Les Sybelles.
However there is something very French about all of the ski asylums that were built in the sixties and there are lots of us that have had a fantastic time at many of them - chocolate box resorts are so twee
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Tad harsh including Avoriaz in this thread. At least they covered up the concrete with wood.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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There were a few munters when I was last in Tignes.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Filthyphil30k wrote: |
| There were a few munters when I was last in Tignes. |
Are we still talking buildings?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Even though I still do ski more or less from first to last lift, I find that ugly resorts, especially if the resort itself is above the tree line, adversely affect my mood, however good the skiing. That said, places like Val Thorens fulfil a function very late in the season and I notice that some buildings there are now being clad in wood. I will not stay in Tignes again, though: I absolutely hate it. Each to his own, obviously.
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@Conrad Bool, +1. Ugliest resort I ever saw, but haven't been there since the mid 80s.
It does seem plain from the replies so far that most of the monstrosities are in France. I wonder are planning laws laxer (or more adventurous depending on your viewpoint).
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a few non French, non-pretty, rogg
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and
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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and then there's
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whereas this is pretty, albeit taken in summer
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