In the distance, in the heart of the Jura massif, a magical forest of beech and maple trees, where packs of wolves have been seen, extends beyond the Valserine, the first classified wild river in France. Comtois draft horses and a pack donkey snort in the soggy greenery of a month of May breaking rainfall records. On the road which leads to the Col de la Faucille from the village of Mijoux, there are no crowds. A few hikers bending their backs ignore the showers to access the panorama of Mont-Blanc and Lake Geneva.
On the heights, at an altitude of 1,320 meters, in the station, Guillaume Thibault is busy. “The mini golf course has taken on water, but within a few days it should be operational”, exclaims the operational director of the Monts Jura Mixed Union. The Accrobranche park has just been renovated. The big zip line is still there. “The idea is to be open almost eight months of the year, from the end of April to September and three months in winter”he emphasizes, peering into the distance at the rail sled, a sort of rollercoaster that hurtles down the mountain. “For some, the postcard is no longer enough. »
After a second winter in a row with more than deficient snow, the Jura Alpine and Nordic resorts − Monts Jura (Ain), Les Rousses (Jura) and Métabief (Doubs) − are all strengthening their “4-season tourism”, by offering activities that can be practiced all year round. Like the Vosges and the Massif Central, these mid-mountain resorts are suffering the full brunt of “the end of an economic model”, notes Julien Ruelle, project manager at the Haut-Jura regional natural park. Even if their local governance is not the same, they manage it with different time steps. “It all depends on whether local elected officials and ski lift operators are on the same wavelength”he adds.
New “clienteles”
Of the three, Métabief took note of the end of snow cover in 2020 and decided to cease its investments in ski infrastructure to expand its scope of activities to the ski jumping stadium, the lake and the nature reserve. In Les Rousses, where part of the area will have to close due to the lack of snow, the resort, managed by a mixed economy company, Sogestar, says it wants to diversify while continuing to replace ski lifts. Like the Jura Mountains, where, this winter, some ski instructors left for the Alps due to lack of work there.
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