Airport transfer to/from Flaine

Flaine is the name of a ski area located in the Haute Savoie region of the French Alps, and part of linked Grand Massif domain. Flaine is linked to Samoens, Morillon and Les Carroz, with 267km of piste in total. It featured the first 8 seater high speed chairlift and snow cannons to be installed in France. The site was discovered by two Swiss friends who ski toured in the area. They contacted Éric Boissonnas, part of the wealthy Schlumberger banking family with a view to developing a ski resort.

In the summer of 1959 planning started under the direction of town planner Laurent Chappis and Denis Pradelle, both of whom had worked on Courchevel. Flaine was to form part of a third generation of French ski areas constructed ex nihilo. Impressed by the modernist school of architecture, Eric Boissonnas asked former Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer to give an original look to the station. The result are striking, modern concrete buildings that still manages to blend into the stark cliffs of the Flaine bowl. The buildings are interspersed with sculptures by Jean Dubuffet, Véra Cardot, Pablo Picasso and Victor Vasarely. The architecture at Flaine divides opinion amongst winter sports fans but the site has been classed by the French government as being of significant architectural interest.

The construction of the resort was not without difficulty. Chappis and Pradelle left after Breuer joined the team, Boissonnas fell out with the government official in charge with planning France's winter sports industry and when local landowners found out that Boissonnas was a billionaire they threatened to block the building of the access road to the resort until they received adequate compensation. The result was a three year delay and huge cost overruns and lead to greater state involvment in French ski resort development. By the time the resort was opened on the 17th January 1969 it had probably cost Boissonas around $250 million from his personal fortune at 2005 prices.