Wednesday 12 May updated on 05-12-2021 at 8:06
Wednesday 12 May updated on 05-12-2021 at 8:06
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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.
| 1964 | Fusion of the communes of Hauteville Gondon and Bourg Saint Maurice that allowed the resort to be built |
| 1968 | Opening of the first hotel in Arc 1600: Les Trois Arcs |
| 1973 | Completion of Arc 1600 with 4000 beds |
| 1974 | Opening of Arc 1800 |
| 1975 | Inauguration of the Hôtel du Golf in Arc 1800, the largest hotel in the Alps at the time |
| 1979 | Opening of Arc 2000 and its Club Med |
| 1996 | Completion of the construction of Arc 1800 with the village of Charmettoger |
| 2003 | Creation of Arc 1950 by Canadian company Intrawest |
| 2003 | Creation of the Paradiski area (Les Arcs – Peisey Vallandry – La Plagne) |
| 2018 | Opening 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 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
