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  1. Les Arcs
  2. Discover Les Arcs
  3. The DNA of Les Arcs
  4. Les Arcs celebrates its 50th anniversary
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Les Arcs celebrates its 50th anniversary

From December 2018 to December 2019, Les Arcs will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a program of events and key moments in both the winter and summer seasons. Pioneering sports resort, creative lab for architects and designers, place for emotions and memories, let’s celebrate 5 decennies that changed history of Winter sports and leisure.

 



 

The story of Les Arcs started in 1968 when three exceptionally creative personalities came together: Robert Blanc, Roger Godino, and Charlotte Perriand.

A young and ambitious entrepreneur from Chambery, Roger Godino loved skiing. Fate brought him into contact with Robert Blanc, a mountain guide who was already prominent in the sports world, surprisingly open and imaginative.

Together, they started the crazy project to build a winter sports resort from scratch on the mountain pastures where Robert Blanc had grown up.

It was a modern and innovative time and Les Arcs needed a bold, creative inspiration for its “new town” in the mountains, a truly original creation. The intervention of Charlotte Perriand, a designer inspired by Le Corbusier’s Mouvement Moderne and already internationally renowned, would be decisive.

Her work, particularly what she accomplished in Les Arcs, has become a reference for professionals in the leisure homes business worldwide.

THE HISTORY OF LES ARCS IN A FEW DATES

1964Fusion of the communes of Hauteville Gondon and Bourg Saint Maurice that allowed the resort to be built
1968Opening of the first hotel in Arc 1600: Les Trois Arcs
1973Completion of Arc 1600 with 4000 beds
1974Opening of Arc 1800
1975Inauguration of the Hôtel du Golf in Arc 1800, the largest hotel in the Alps at the time
1979Opening of Arc 2000 and its Club Med
1996Completion of the construction of Arc 1800 with the village of Charmettoger
2003Creation of Arc 1950 by Canadian company Intrawest
2003Creation of the Paradiski area (Les Arcs – Peisey Vallandry – La Plagne)
2018Opening of Club Med’s Les Arcs Panorama, the largest Club Med in the Alps


Find more about our History and famous people here.

 

ROBERT BLANC, CREATOR OF LES ARCS

Robert Blanc was born in 1933 in the heart of the Alpine meadows  of Hauteville-Gondon. A shepherd in his youth, he later became an instructor and high mountain guide.

It was in 1961, after his meeting with Roger Godino, that the idea emerged of creating a ski resort on the heights of Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The pair threw themselves into this innovative project with the help of the four brothers of the Blanc family to develop the future winter sports resort of les Arcs.

© Clément Taillefer