EUROMONTANA COMMUNICATION March 2018

Study visits in Moûtiers and Val Thorens, in the Auvergne-Rhône- Alpes region, in

Euromontana’s Board of Directors met on 7 and 8 March 2018, in Moûtiers, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region, France. Moûtiers is a town of less than 4,000 inhabitants, located at 481 meters above sea level in the Tarentaise valley, located in the French département of . Two study visits were organised by Fabrice Pannekoucke, Mayor of Moûtiers, Vice-President of the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône- Alpes and member of Euromontana’s Board of Directors; and by Geneviève Borodine, Project Manager for the region. The members of Euromontana’s Board of Directors went to visit the dairy cooperative in Moûtiers, which produces the Beaufort, a PDO cheese (Protected Designation of Origin) and Val Thorens, a ski station in the 3 Vallées, Moûtiers the highest ski resort in France, located at 2,300 meters above sea level. These study visits enabled to better understand local realities and to see an innovative business model that keeps this region dynamic and attractive.

Val Thorens and the Beaufort cheese are two symbols of the valley, they have relied on innovation and the quality of production to encourage the socio-economic development of the region. Although representing very different activities, these two examples are linked by the complementarity of their seasonal workers; many producers of Beaufort who work in the pastures, during the summer, work in the ski resort, in the winter.

1. The dairy cooperative of the region of Moûtiers The members of the Board of Directors discovered and visited the Coopérative Laitière de Moûtiers (Dairy cooperative of Moûtiers), open to the public all year long, and witnessed the production of Beaufort cheese. Created and managed by the farmers of the high valleys of the Moûtiers and districts, the dairy cooperative of Moûtiers produces and refines the milk of local breeds into Beaufort cheese. Every year, the cooperative produces 16,000 cheese wheels. Each wheel contains 400 litres of milk, weighs 40 kilos and measures 54 centimetres in diameter. The total production of Beaufort PDO cheese remains very low (5,500 tonnes per year) compared to other French cheeses (eg 60,000 tonnes of Comté cheese are produced per year), but producers rely primarily on a quality product and a niche Market. This is why Beaufortcheese is sold only in short supply circuist (40% of the cheese is sold directly through the 15 outlets located in the region) or by wholesalers (60% of sales). In order to further increase sales and meet consumer demand, the Cooperative has placed two Beaufort cheese vending machines in Moûtiers. These vending machines allow consumers to buy their cheese even when the Coopérative is closed.

Beaufort cheese vending machine

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EUROMONTANA COMMUNICATION March 2018

Beaufort cheese: a Protected Designation of Origin For 50 years, the production of Beaufort cheese has been defined according to very strict rules, in order to preserve its quality:

A homogeneous production area: all the production takes place in the high mountains of Savoie, specifically in the Beaufortain area, in the Tarentaise and valleys.

Cows of local breeds: the milk comes exclusively from two breeds of cows, both mountain breeds, Tarantaise (also called the Tarine) and Abondance. Each year, more than 1,200 dairy cows (Tarantaise or Abondance) give their milk for the production of Beaufort cheese.

Limited milk production per cow: a cow produces a maximum of 5,000 kilograms of milk per year.

A diet based on local resources: which is hay in winter, and pasture in the mountains in the summer

Traditional production: the raw whole milk is transformed on the day it is collected, curdling occurs using natural rennet and the cheese is moulded in linen and in a specific wooden circle. The cheese wheels during Refining for a minimum of 5 months in the cellar refinement

Did you know? Depending on the season and location where the cows graze, the milk they produce will not taste the same, resulting in a slightly different taste and texture to the Beaufort cheese. There are three types of Beaufort:

► Beaufort : The one that is called winter Beaufort cheese. It is manufactured from November 1st to May 31st. Cows eat hay harvested in summer. ► Beaufort été: It is made from June 1st to October 31st. This is the time when dairy cows graze outdoors. The cows graze in the alpine pasture for 100 days up to 2500 meters altitude. ► Beaufort Chalet d’Alpage : It is made in the summer, twice a day in Alpine chalets above 1,500 meters altitude. This Beaufort is produced with the milk Board of Directors’ members in fron of the “coopérative of a single flock. laitière de Moûtiers”

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EUROMONTANA COMMUNICATION March 2018

2. The Val Thorens ski resort within the 3 Vallées The Board also visited the town Les Belleville, about thirty kilometres from Moûtiers, in the French département of Savoie. Les Belleville have the particularity to welcome on their ground 3 ski resorts: Saint Martin Les Belleville (1,300m), the Ménuires (1,800m) and Val Thorens (2,300m). These three resorts are part of the largest ski area in the world: the 3 Vallées. André Plaisance, Mayor of Les Belleville, joined the members of the Board to present the major challenges of his municipality. Les Belleville is a town of 3,200 inhabitants which welcomes more than 60,000 visitors in winter. The town has had to develop to meet the different needs of visitors, both in terms of leisure Board of Directors’ members in Val Thorens offers, as well as health services, for example. This tourism development is a huge asset for the economic development of the region, since the 3 Vallées have created up to 6,000 jobs, according to André Plaisance. Once in Val Thorens, the Board members had the opportunity to exchange with various tourism and municipal professionals of Val Thorens including Grégory Guzzo, director of the tourist office, Benjamin Blanc, general director of the slopes department of the 3 Valleys and Jérôme Grellet, director of the ski lifts at Val Thorens. They presented how the resort is developing through constant innovation.

2.1 Val Thorens: a station mainly focused on skiing The resort has already won four times the "best ski resort in the world" award. In 2017, with an average weekly filling rate of nights of 80% in winter, the annual total of night stays reached 4 million, out of which 3.6 million night stays in winter. There were also 1.9 million skier-days. This winter tourism is facilitated by the location of the resort at high altitude and by the fact that ski slopes are open from November to May. 90% of winter visitors ski and enjoy this ski-to-the-feet car-free resort, which has multiplied the number of touristic facilities: snowpark, familypark, skicross stadium, toboggan run.

Nevertheless, even at this high altitude, the station anticipates the decrease in snowfall and adapts to climate change by trying to develop the summer tourism, even if it currently represents only 0.3% of its turnover. Also, it plans to develop the second largest gondola in the world to facilitate a new link with the neighboring valley of Maurienne. This infrastructure, which investment Meeting at Val Thorens can be made profitable by winter tourism, can also be used in summer for other activities.

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EUROMONTANA COMMUNICATION March 2018

2.2 Val Thorens: a resort focusing on innovation

This ski resort invests heavily in research and development to constantly propose new innovations. Among these, we can mention :

From the 1980s, the establishment of the largest cable car in the world, the CARON to reach the top of the station at 3,200m From the 1990s, the inauguration of the double-cable Funitel which enables cable transport in a stable and fast way even in difficult weather conditions. The same system is used today in urban transport such as in Brest in France for instance The installation of 3 hybrid groomers: as well as being quieter, they consume up to 20% less fuel

and allow a reduction of about 20% of CO2 and nitrogen oxide emissions The implementation of the SNOWsat system for snow groomers: this GPS solution helps to calculate the thickness of snow under the groomer and thus facilitates the work of distributing snow on the track. It makes it possible to use artificial snow only when necessary and therefore to adjust the production of artificial snow as accurately as possible. In addition to technological innovation, the station also wanted to improve the medical offer to improve the well-being of residents and tourists. A medical office is now open all year in Les Menuires with general practitioners, a gynecologist, a psychologist, nurses and a dentist. In winter, this medical center includes 6 salaried doctors and operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The rest of the year, it employs 2 doctors full- time. In Val Thorens, a smaller center is also open for general medicine and traumatology. These devices resulted in a 80% reduction of ambulance descents to the nearest hospital located in , 65km away. These examples show how the station has always managed to adapt to stay at the forefront of innovation and specially to achieve economic and environmental gains.

For more information

• About the dairy cooperative: watch this video on Youtube • About Val Thorens: visit their website

For more information, please contact: Florence Tornincasa, Communication Officer [email protected] +32 2 280 42 83 www.euromontana.org

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