In the words of Semisonic’s Closing Time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. It’s that time of year when we look towards closing for the winter season.
The Morzine and Les Gets area closed last weekend on 9 April while Avoriaz’s planned closing date it 23 April. We are in the middle of the Easter Holidays with both British and French tourists enjoying the festive period. With temperatures due to drop to -6 C tomorrow and hopefully 15-20cm of snow to fall overnight, we are hopeful for a few more powder runs still to come!
The Hotel du Lac closes this Sunday, 16 April (book your final Sunday roast here) and the final closing parties will take place over the next week or so. The Happy Hours closing party promises to be the biggest one around, with music from midday to midnight on Friday 21 April, a carnival theme, and even fireworks! Luckily our staff won’t have to be at work the next day and instead will be enjoying a highly deserved weekend lie-in!
For seasonaires and year-round residents, the much anticipated ‘interseason’ then begins, allowing us all time to rest and recuperate after the first fully open season since 19/20. The hotel will also benefit from a refresh and the terrace will be prepared for a summer season of mouth-watering barbecues, refreshing spritzes and lazy sunny days sunbathing by the lake.
Despite interseason being extremely quiet, with most bars and restaurants closed, no lifts or public transport running and even reduced hours at the supermarkets, it is a period which is often looked forward to and cherished by year-round inhabitants. Whilst many animals and people think of the winter as the hibernation time, in a tourist resort it is the interseason that many sleep long and deep and hide away. Others take it as time to visit family or other parts of the world with any savings they’ve made from their hard work throughout the season.
May and June are incredible times for nature across the valley. Week by week, and sometimes almost day by day, leaves appear on the trees and new flowers burst from the pastures. The differences in altitude around us make this even more fascinating. When you go hiking you’ll see things in bloom at one altitude but nothing like it higher up. A few weeks later you’ll be out again and all of a sudden a higher altitude has the same things in bloom as the lower places did weeks earlier.
Spring crocuses are among the first flowers to appear across the Alps in springtime. You will even see their purple and white petals pushing their way through melting snow. Beautiful creamy yellow primroses are starting to spread across gardens and grasslands at the moment. Damp meadows and woodland will soon become home to the distinctively stocky blue bugle. Check out AllTrails for some wildflower trails to follow.
The hotel will come out of its short hibernation on 6 May for weekend restaurant and room bookings and on 15 June the full summer season begins. See full details on restaurant and hotel bookings during this period here.
Wishing you a restful, restorative, bright and beautiful interseason!