At La Lécherette, where I live, we’re a long way from the amenities that holidaymakers have a right to expect from a resort worthy of the name. There’s just one small self-service grocery store. When it’s ski time, well, the ski bar is open. The restaurant, on the other hand, is closed for good. Yet people come to enjoy the slopes when they can, and these occasional influxes underline the overall lack of occupancy of places that are no longer in tune with the times. What to make of this discordance? What can we do with this somewhat decrepit beauty, this land that is less and less covered in snow? This land caught between exploitation and abandonment, this land that we’ve left our mark on, that we once believed in and no longer do? What are we going to do with the Pre-Alps?

© Thomas Brasey, 2024-2026.

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