FRANCE PLANS BIG SEASON FOR WINTER SPORTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22820, 15 December 1948, Page 7

FRANCE PLANS BIG SEASON FOR WINTER SPORTS

(From Mac Fee Kerr, Reuter's I Correspondent.) (By Air Mail) PARIS. Sports organisers and tourist authorities in France arc going ahead with an ambitious programme of winter sports events for this season in spite of numerous economic difficulties. An official of the French Ski-ing Federation in Paris stated that invitations have been sent out to 30 nations to take part in "La Semaine Inter- , nationale de Mont Blanc" (the Mont Blanc international week) to be held in the Chamonix region of the French Alps from January 17 to 23. Preparations are also being made for a second big ski-ing attraction, the Championnat de France, which will be held at Chamonix from February 17 to 27. -The third outstanding winter sports event, the Grand Prix de Nice, is expected to be held in March at Auron in the Alpes Maritimes Department. "This year's winter sports season ought to be the most important since the end of the war," the Ski-ing Federation official said. "It will not perhaps have all the brilliance of last , year's Olympic winter sports, but our , organisation, which was upset by the 1 war, is now getting into its stride , again. Our main difficulties have been , created by the country's unstable j economic condition. Railway travel, hotel accommodation and winter sport 1 equipment have all increased in price j this year, for example." i The Paris newspaper, Aube, recently ; estimated that the cost of winter sports - in France has increased 50 per cent this ] year. "The most modest hotels in the • winter sports regions are charging I about 10s a day more than they did last year. For a first-class hotel, you must reckon about £2 a day now." , In spite of increased charges many ■ winter sports hotels are already booked up for the season. One of the reasons ; for this is that the French tourist , authorities have been conducting an ■ ctxensive advertising campaign abroad to popularise winter sports. More than ■ 150,000 booklets, publicising winter sports in France, have already been sent out to Britain, the United States, Canada and South America. The Michelin Tourist Service, one of France's guide-book publishers, has issued a special winter sports guide book listing all the winter sports stations, their altitude, and details of restaurant and lodging accommodation. There is also detailed information about the condition of the roads in the French Alps. The people most seriously affected by the increased cost of winter sports in France are those who are planning to take up the sport for the first time. The cost of buying a full ski-ing kit is well beyond the means of the French worker whose average wage is about £4 a week. Current prices for ski wear in Paris are: Shoes, £5; skiing vests. £5; ski-ing trousers, from £5 to £6; one pair of ash wood skis, £2 TOs. During the winter sports season, another tourist attraction which is expected to bring many visitors to France will be the Nice Carnival. This begins on February 17 and lasts for a week. Carnival equipment makers in this Mediterranean resort arc at present busily making carnival floats, grotesque effigies and paper mache masks of Brobdingnagian proportions to be in readiness for the reign of King Carnival. Over 30001bs. of confetti will be showered on the streets of Nice during carnival week. There will also be fireworks displays. Local authorities at Nice estimate that these displays cost about £BOO an hour.