Les Gets

Les Gets
Les Gets
	Location of Les Gets
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Haute-Savoie
Arrondissement	Bonneville
Canton	Taninges
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Henri Anthonioz
Area 1	29.98 km2 (11.58 sq mi)
Population (2006)	1,370
• Density	46/km2 (120/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	74134 /74260
Elevation	900–1,820 m (2,950–5,970 ft) ; (avg. 1,172 m or 3,845 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Les Gets is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.

The village's first single person chair lift was opened in 1938 with the first chair lift on Mont Chery in 1954.

Geography

Les Gets is situated on a plateau between Samoëns and Morzine, at the western edge of the Portes du Soleil ski area.

Culture

Les Gets contains a museum of Mechanical Music and hosts a festival of Mechanical Music bi-annually. This has been running for 25 years. The 13th festival was held between the 18th and 20th of July 2008 and the next will be held in July 2010. During this period the streets will be closed off and barrel organs or orgues will fill the streets with mechanical music. Many of the organ grinders will come from other European countries, such as Germany and Holland.

Les Gets also has a museum of skiing situated in The Belvedere Restaurant at the mid-station on Mont Chery.

Traditional Savoy dishes are central to Les Gets cuisine. These include tartiflette, a dish of potatoes "au gratin" with reblochon cheese and lardons. A traditional liquer, génépi, is also often drunk as a digestif, although the exact constitution of this medicinal drink varies as many residents produce their own.

Night life

There are many restaurants ranging from the family friendly and reasonably priced to fairly top end. They mostly specialise in local savoyard cuisine.

Les Gets has many pubs including The Boomerang (Australian), The Black Bear (Canadian), and an Irish pub.

There is also a club, The Igloo

In the summer, there are all kinds of evening activities in the centre of town, ranging from discos to the "Pot de Bienvenue" (a welcome drink) on a Monday evening. A lot of emphasis is given to children's entertainment, such as wooden games set out in the street, street performers and a carousel. Live bands regularly perform on the semi-permanent stage in the centre of the village, attracting both locals and tourists.

Sports

Summer

Mountain biking - In the summer, Les Gets hosts many downhill mountain biking events. There are two distinct downhill mountain bike areas, one on each side of the village. The downhill mountain bike run on Mt Chéry has been used in the Mountain Bike World Cups in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, and in the Mountain Bike World Championships in 2004.

Golf - Les Gets has a 18hole golf course 5264metres long Par70 overlooking Mont Blanc (In the winter it forms part of the pistes)

Winter

A paraglider lifts off from above Mont Chery, looking out over Les Gets.

Skiing - Les Gets is a linked ski resort within the Portes du Soleil. Lift passes can be purchased for Les Gets and the neighbouring area of Morzine, or for the wider Portes du Soleil. Combined Morzine and Les gets, have around 50 lifts across several distinct ski areas.

The ski area consists mainly of blue and red runs (beginner and intermediate). There is an area known as "The Bowl" to which numerous ski runs and chairlifts feed into. Situated in this area are the resort's most easily accessible black runs: 'Yeti', accessed via the resort's slowest chairlift, La Rosta, and Myrtilles accessed by the Grains d'Or Express. Mt. Chery hosts the majority of black runs, also having numerous red runs, with just one blue and no green pistes. It is the "locals'" mountain, Les Chavannes being the tourist side.

There are several good spots for off-piste skiing and snowboarding, the best of which are; to the sides of 'Yeti', the long black run off Mt. Chammossiere and also by taking a short hike from the top of the Ranfoilly lift. the latter has been rated as one of the best off piste powder bowls in Europe (although there is very often a high chance of avalanches).

The snowpark is located on Mt. Chery, which is on the ski area on the other side of the village. A bus connects the 2 sides however it takes just as long to walk. The snowpark has kickers, a spine, rails, boxes, a boarder cross and new for 07-08 was a large air bag. The park is fairly small and served by a 2 man chairlift.

Children's skiing - Les Gets has an area of the mountain for children only, le Grande Cry. This has 2 button lifts and several runs, all themed around trappers and Indians. They hold weekly treasure hunts for children.

Ski lessons - there are many companys offering ski lessons both for adults and children, private and public but the main company in the area is ESF

Ice Skating - In the winter there is an open air ice rink in the centre of the village.

References

INSEE

External links