CREDIT

TheGreta Thunberg effectis taking over and #flyshame is affecting sales.Liz Rowlinson searcheswhere to buyfor great skiing near train stations

Geton the slopes,without the ecoguilt

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23 November 2019

GERARD

COTTE;

GERHARD

GROGER

SNOWBUSINESSAntares in Meribel,

cover, from €2.11m,Athena Advisers; a

flat in La Plagne

near Aime-la-

Plagne station, top

left, €243,000 with

Erna Low; Sandy

and Mike Harris-

Smith, left

Daniel Elkan always

takes the train whenhe goes skiing every

year to the FrenchAlps. He relishes thespace to move

around, while enjoy-ing the scenery as

Eurostar carves through France.But for the former volunteer of

Friends of the Earth who lives in Hamp-

stead, north-west London, his carbonfootprint also counts. “Taking the traincreates a fraction of the carbon dioxide

that taking the plane does,” he says. Ac-cording to sustainability consultancyAntithesis, a typical one-way journeyby plane from London to the Alps cre-ates around 122kg of carbon dioxideper person, a car 240kg (per vehicle),and a train ride only 12kg per person.

Snow is falling in the Alps and he isnot the only skier thinking about cli-

mate change. Snowcarbon.co.uk, thewebsite he set up to address the lack ofjoined-up information on train ser-

vices, has been busy of late. “In the pastsix months I’ve had a spike in emails

from people saying they are trying notto fly, so what are the best ways to getto the Alps by train?” he says.

The “flight shame” movement (com-plete with its own hashtag, #flyshame)

has already stopped Swedes flying asmuch asthey did, but with the Alps sit-ting at the centre of Europe, many

property owners can – and do – drive ortake the train. While you could opt to

drive by electric car (Flaine in France isone ski resort with charging points),Eurostar reports that bookings for its

winter trains to the French Alps haveincreased year-on-year.

Sowhat are the most convenient re-sorts for carbon-conscious property-hunters? To reach France you can

either take the Eurostar to Paris andpick up aTGV down to the Alps, or else

during winter you can takeone of Eurostar’s dedicated“Ski Trains” direct to threestations: Moûtiers, Aime-la-Plagne and Bourg-St-Mau-

rice, taking overseven-and-a-half hours.

The closest ski resort to

Bourg-St-Maurice is themodern purpose-built ski re-

sort of Les Arcs. It’s low ontraditional Savoyard charmbut user-friendly, and is com-

prised of four linked villagesnamed after their altitude, all

in the 264 miles of Paradiskiski area. Reached by aseven-minute funicular train from

the station, it’s Elkan’s fa-vourite resort. “Taking the 9.45am train

and arriving at 7.03pm means an eight-hour journey, which is sometimes notthat much longer than flying,” he says.

Arc 1950 is very popular with fami-lies because it is car-free, snow-sure

and offers free activities each week,plus the resort is a good investment asrental apartments are always in de-

mand. Resales cost around €492 [£421]per sq ft,” says François Marchand of

Erna Low Property; there are no new-builds left now.

“Nearby Arc 1800, reached by free

resort shuttle, is more popular withthose looking for lively après-ski,” addsMarchand. “There’s a new La Folie

Douce [day-party concept ski bar]opening in December.” At the ski in-skiout five-star Residence Edenarc devel-opment, prices start from €319,000 fora new, furnished, two-bedroom prop-erty through Erna Low.

Forty-five minutes by car fromBourg-St-Mauriceare the high-alti-

tude resorts ofTignes and Vald’Isère. In Tignes,

you can get athree-bedroom

property in aleaseback devel-opment (which

gives you limitedpersonal usage

with a guaranteedannual return) for€375,000 through

Erna Low Prop-erty.

The commer-cial centre of Val

d’Isère is cur-rently goingthrough major im-

provement, butprices are steep:

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prime properties cost on average €1,887per sq ft, according to Savills, the third

highest in a ski resort after Courchevel1850 and Aspen, Colorado. The agent is

selling a spacious three-bedroomapartment there for €3.6 million.

Consider buying in Bourg-St-Mau-rice itself for much lower prices: youcan get apartments for €325 per sq ft,

or one in Moûtiers for €279 per sq ft.“Both are popular locations for buyers

because apart from the train stationsthey are gateways to the valley and

both have attractive historic parts,”says Sandy Harris-Smith of Leggett Im-

mobilier. “Moûtiers is especially popu-lar with homebuyers who prefer totake the train. But it is also only 20 min-

utes by car to Méribel in the Three Val-

leys, or the smaller resorts ofBrides-les-Bains and Valmorel.” Theagent is selling a four-bedroom pent-

house apartment in Moûtiers for€259,000, and in Valmorel you can get

a studio apartment for just €69,000.Buyers on a budget who prefer the

holiday atmosphere of a ski resortmight prefer La Plagne, a cluster of re-sorts five minutes’ drive from Aime-la-

Plagne, or 20 from Moûtiers. The mostauthentic is the former farming village

of Champagny-en-Vanoise, wherethere are plans to build a new lift which

will connect nearby Bozel withCourchevel in the Three Valleys.Athena Advisers is selling apartments

off-plan from €243,000. Parisians use

Bourg-St-Maurice for ski weekendsthanks to its handy train connections,

and Harris-Smith’s partner Mike uses itfor his weekly commute back to the UK

to run his business in Berkshire. “Welive in the small Savoyard village of Pei-sey-Nancroix because we love to ski,”she says. “It’s only 10 minutes from theEurostar station of Aime-la-Plagne, and

in winter Mike can use the snow trains.”But regulars like Elkan say that train

companies will need to do a lot more ifthey want people to forgo planes. Thisincludes broadening their schedules,

as well as having the ability to book ayear in advance (like airlines).

Happily, you can increasingly get

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23 November 2019

GERARD

COTTE;

GERHARD

GROGER

SNOW

BUSINESSAntares in Meribel,

cover, from €2.11m,Athena Advisers; a

flat in La Plagne

near Aime-la-

Plagne station, top

left, €243,000 with

Erna Low; Sandy

and Mike Harris-

Smith, left

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23 November 2019

A typical one-way

flight from

London to theAlps creates122kg

of carbon dioxide

per person, whilea train journey is

only 12kg

further away by rail – even if it take awhile. Getting to Austria by train hasbecome easier this winter with the newAlpen Express sleeper that starts from

Dec 20. Every Friday it will take skiersfrom Amsterdam (or Brussels) to wakeup moments from the ski slopes of theTirol, Salzburg and Arlberg. Britishtravellers can take the Eurostar to Am-sterdam or Brussels.

“Now Londoners can leave their of-

fice on Friday and wake up in the cen-tre of Zell am See,ready for afull day’sskiing and an eight-day skiing week,”says Giles Gale of Alpine PropertyFinders. “This is the first time Austriahas been properly accessible by train –good for nervous fliers and the envi-

ronmentally conscious.” The agent isselling new apartments in the dual-sea-son lakeside town of Zell am Seeat the

Elements Resort, from €242,900 for aone-bedroom property, or new chaletsnear the Schmittenhöhe cable car(completion in December 2020) from€1.095 million.

Other stops on this branch of the lineinclude the chic resort of Kitzbüheland next-door Kirchberg in Tirol.Smaller Fieberbrunn – two stops later– is another option, suggests JessicaDelaney of the agent. “It’s nestled be-tween the mountain ranges of Kitz-bühel and Saalbach, and the villagedates back to the Middle Ages. It’spacked full of character and since 2015has been linked to 167 miles of pistes.”Properties in the Haus Jakob develop-ment there start from €1.97 million, andall have a rental obligation – standardfor new Austrian ski resort properties.

The train splits in Cologne and goesto Langen am Arlberg, from where thepopular resorts of St Anton and Lechcan be reached within 20 minutes.Bruce Haines, who travels to the pic-ture-postcard Tyrolean village of Alp-bach by train every year, agrees it is a

long day – with a 7am depart from Lon-don, arriving at 8pm in the resort. “Thebest thing is that you inevitably meet anew family en route, and you can drinkbeer and eat proper food all the way.”Perfect if you believe the journey ispart of the experience.

WARMWELCOMEChalet Le Rocher in

Val d’Isère, main,

€17m through

Athena Advisers;

Chalet Bellevue in

Meribel, right,

€3.95m with

Savills; apartments

in Kirchberg,

below, start from

€4.2m with Alpine

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23 November 2019