Le Franco Phoney

Something that Australia is unlikely to ever host is a winter Olympics. So, for an Australian living in France, I’m very pleased to hear that Annecy, just down the road from La Clusaz, wants to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, along with three other places in France (Nice, Grenoble and Pelvoux). This lovely logo (top left) has started appearing on websites and in magazines, and has now physically made it to La Clusaz in both banner and sticker form. La Clusaz would actually get quite a few of the events, as you can see from the two diagrams showing both the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics sports locations.

If Annecy were to host the games, La Clusaz would host the ski jumping, combined nordic skiing, cross-country skiing and acrobatic jumping. La Plagne, not actually in Haute Savoie, but already equipped with a bobsleigh track from the Albertville Winter Olympics in 1992, would host the luge, bobsleigh and skeleton (that’s the one where the participants lay down on their bellies for that extra (!) hit of speed on their luge). Other events would be held in Chamonix and its surrounding resorts and Avoriaz.

Meanwhile, the Paralympics, held after the Olympics and generally less televised and reported on, will actually do better out of its reduced size: the Olympic Village will be in Annecy for the Paralympians, while the Olympians have to stay way out in Argonnay and Pringy—little rural towns miles away from Annecy. Apart from the curling (which I actually saw at the last Winter Olympic games, of all sports!), all the Paralympic games sports would be held either here in La Clusaz or Le Grand Bernand, just next door.

I wonder if the local bakeries would create les rings d’Olympique to sit along side le croix de Savoie. I’m all for that—and the Winter Olympics!