Why Flaine is the perfect purpose-built French mountain town

Flaine is a French purpose-built resort whose creator didn’t feel the need to reflect the grandeur of the mountains in jagged shapes or classic chalets. It was born in the Swinging Sixties, designed by Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer who called the US home. He was a master of the geometric Bauhaus style and had created UNESCO’s grand Paris HQ. An entire ski town was a new challenge, which he met by producing a resort like no other.

There have been many detractors who did not recognise the elegance — the shifting sun dancing off the softly bevelled windows, the shining symmetry — and for a while, Flaine looked like becoming a sink estate. But thankfully, we’ve fallen back in love with its functionalism, and now Flaine has become something of a living museum to architecture, a delight to walk through and ski around, with a historic district lined with listed buildings.

It was ahead of its time, with gondolas and cable-cars running from ground level (no hefting skis up steps), and Europe’s first snowmaking system.

And Flaine has continued to evolve. My accommodation at Les Terrasses d’Eos, in the Montsoleil area above the resort, sits alongside Les Terrasses d’Hélios — both apartment complexes are grandly cosy, with restaurants, bars, spa, ski shop and supermarket. Opening in 2015 and 2014 respectively, they were the Montsoleil area’s debut development, and have since been awarded the global Green Key environmental award for recycling and energy efficiency. Flaine’s access road passes here but skirts the centre leaving it car-free, the resort’s different apartment zones discreetly hidden by the valley drop. Two little glass box funicular lifts whizz skiers between levels, and while a Picasso sculpture, La Tête de Femme, a colourful Cubist face on a pole, stands loud and proud, Flaine’s cables and wires are tucked away from sight in tunnels, part of Breuer’s architectural vision to integrate the resort into the landscape’s natural contours.

But what about the skiing? From one area below my apartment block, and the striking cantilevered concrete deck of Hôtel Le Totem sitting elegantly on a ridge, ski lifts head off in most directions — and all the resort’s runs pour back to this point. Flaine is part of the 165-mile Grand Massif, France’s fourth-biggest connected area, taking in the villages of Les Carroz, Sixt, Morillon and Samoëns. There’s everything from the nine-mile forest-fringed run above Sixt to gorgeous above-treeline pistes with Mont Blanc views. But Flaine is a decent ski area in itself — including some tremendous off-piste terrain through the trees. The base area has beginner lifts, with all runs — a mass of intermediate and easy pistes — ending in the one spot. The La Joyeuse Flainoise is a Breuer-esque spot for lunch, serving a splendid cod with risotto.

And apres-ski here offers far more than schnapps and ski-boot shuffling to local DJs. Flaine is fabulous for a sunset stroll. The Centre d’Art de Flaine, in one of the resort’s original 1960s buildings, has evocative black-and-white photography documenting Flaine’s evolution, along with exhibitions of contemporary art. In winter, the gallery runs a weekly Artistic and Architectural Guided Visit, taking in the landmark sights that see Flaine listed on France’s Inventory of Historic Monuments. Other novel non-skiing activities include the ice-driving school hidden in the woods, where you get the chance to pilot cars and quad-bikes over frozen terrain.

Once you’ve worked up an appetite, there are plenty of options in town for cheese-led mountain cuisine, such as Le Sucré-Salé, serving tartiflette and such. Hotel Totem is a great spot for a creative cocktail, its open fire set in a huge concrete fireplace while restaurant L’Eterlou at Les Terrasses d’Eos apartments serves traditional French Alpine fare with a modern touch. 

But there’s no better place to end the day than Deep Nature Spa at Terrasses d’Hélios, with its indoor-outdoor swimming pool, sauna and range of muscle-soothing massages. Sinking into the outdoor hot tub, overlooking the piste, you could almost forget Flaine lies below — but it’s there, just below the trees, in all its magnificent brutalist beauty.