COVID rules divide adjacent French, Swiss ski resorts
Like other French ski resorts, the Alpine town of Chatel has been forced to close its lifts over the Christmas period as part of tougher government curbs to support the corona virus.
But just 5 km (3 miles) away, holidaymakers are schussing down the same slopes on the far side of the border in Switzerland, where less strict restrictions mean it's business as usual in the Dents du Midi ski region. Chatel mayor Nicolas Rubin was so annoyed by the sharp divergence in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic that he hung Swiss flags from the town hall windows for a week in protest. "Of course we are worried, because beyond the closing of the ski resort the morale and the mental health of folks is starting to be affected," he said. Jean-Francois Vuarand, Chatel's tourism chief, said the year-end holidays normally made a fifth of winter weather turnover.
"The problem is... it is difficult to create customers understand that at the border, in both of these nearby areas, there are two different rules for the same activity," he said.
"What will happen is that the majority of French persons will go there (over the border) and we don't understand because we have as much right because they have to be open," he said. "We are investing in place all our assets to give a safe product to our customers, however the sword of Damocles has ended our heads," he said.
Yoan Perroud, shrugged of the chance of skiing, saying outdoor activity was not as risky as the restaurants and bars that support them. "For me personally the problem is not the ski slopes, it's what's next to them," he said from Les Crosets, a resort on the Swiss side.
