50 French Property News August 2019 http://www.completefrance.comLOCATION
Audrey adds that there are certain residential
copropriétés which are more sought after than
others – well-maintained buildings which are
right by the ski lifts. Check out the Côtes
Brunes quarter, close to the Jandri Express ski
lift (the Jandri peak is at 3,288m), Rue de
Sagnes, and sections of the main thoroughfare,
Avenue de la Muzelle. Prices can rise to €3,800-
€4,000/m^2 for something exceptional such as
an apartment in a perfect state of repair, with a
south-facing balcony and parking, in a
well-maintained building with no extra
expenses. “That’s usually quite rare,” Audrey
says. And the resort is desperately short of
larger properties, she adds. “The definition of
large apartments chez nous is about 100m^2 .”
You can find detached chalets – de luxe or in
need of renovation, with or without land. The
last one Audrey sold went for almost €1m in
the Rue Perrons sector and had living space of
180m^2 on a plot close to 500m^2.
For the investor there is obviously a good
rental market in these parts, particularly for the
larger chalets. I found a 300m^2 south-west-
facing one on the market furnished for
€785,800 with Agence de la Muzelle. Close to
the slopes and shuttle bus, it has eight
bedrooms and bathrooms, so good rental
potential. When not rented out, it’s the perfect
place for get-togethers with family and friends.
Alexandra Linder at Deux Alpes Immo
confirms that those apartment blocks built in
the 1970s “n’ont pas une architecture
folichonne”, a delightful expression to add to
your vocabulary meaning it is ‘nothing special’
or ‘nothing to write home about’. You can still
find small studios and apartments for
renovation. However, new properties at 1,650m
in the heart of the resort easily exceed €5,000/
m^2 (nearer to €6,000-€7,000/m^2 ).
Still in the centre of the resort, some new
chalets under construction are divided up into
three or four apartments depending on the
surface area with prices around the €8,000/m^2
mark, Alexandra adds. She confirms that with
less going on, prices are lower up at the 1800m
village, although you have access to the ski lifts
from both centres.Wild scenery
In winter, spring, summer or autumn, all you
have to do is hop on a plane to Grenoble Isère,
Lyon St Exupéry or Geneva Cointrin airports.
Or let the train take the strain to Grenoble.
There are buses from Lyon and from Paris
Bercy direct to the resort. Check out, too,
BlaBlaCar, the French online marketplace for
carpooling. I haven’t used it myself but know
folk who have and it seems to work well.
The third Les 2 Alpes Outdoor Festival,
covering the main outdoor disciplines practised
around the resort, took place over a long
weekend in June. There was mountain biking,
trail, ski, snowboard and skate – competitions,
convivial hikes, introduction for beginners,
meals, a concert, and unforgettable evenings,
according to the blurb.
Mountain bikers will think they’ve died and
gone to heaven. The Alpes Bike Park, open
from 22 June to 31 August 2019, offers you a
one-way downward run from 3,200m to 960m
of altitude. Four sectors surrounded by wild
scenery offer 22 runs – endurance, crosscountry, downhill – including the elite black
piste La Fury. It’s all in the name. For mountain
bike beginners, a dedicated site in the Vallée
Blanche offers green runs and workshops.
A good and perhaps less fraught way to
improve your français is to watch French films.
If even that sounds too much like hard work,
the summer cinema season at Les Deux Alpes
includes a film in its original (often English)
version each Wednesday.Wild scenery
Les Deux Alpes offers a choice of properties to
suit all pockets. You can pick up a furnished
second-floor north-facing, no balcony, 12m^2
studio at the foot of the slopes for €25,000. It
needs freshening up but, hey, at that price, so
be it! If you plan on inviting friends or renting
out, €1.175m will buy you a furnished
five-bedroom, four-bathroom chalet with
fireplace, terrace, garage, ski slope views (both
properties Agence de la Muzelle).
The great joy of owning a property in the
Alps is that you really can benefit from it all
year round, enjoying the changing colours of
the seasons – the larch forests in autumn are a
sight to behold – and over 5,700 species of
fantastic Alpine flora and fauna, invigorating
unpolluted air, challenging mountain activities
or a lazy lunch at the top of the chair lift before
taking it back down again afterwards.
And then there’s the skiing. Audrey Antonini
stresses that although she is not competent to
talk about the climatic implications for the
Mont-de-Lans glacier, there are plans in place
to keep it open now and in the future. It is
really the fundamental debate of the resort, she
says, before adding: “The glacier has never
been closed in the summer, never.”
Les Deux-Alpes. Isère a better place to be?A midsummer outdoor festival
trail run at Les Deux Alpesimmobilier-du-glacier.fr
2alpes-immo.com
agencelamuzelle.fr
les2alpes.com/enSummertime on the Piste du DiableAlpes; photo credit: LucasLeufenMediaphoto credit: Bruno Longo