Other activities

The arena complex at Morzine offers curling, skating, ice hockey, horse-drawn carriage tours, skidoo, dogsleigh rides, helicopter tours, mountain biking on the snow, table tennis, a weight room, dancing and gymnas-tics. Painting exhibits, figure skating, ice dancing, hockey games and movies are also scheduled. For information, call 04 50 74 72 72.

Fruitiere de Morzine is a frommagerie or cheese-making facility open to the public Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9 a.m. to watch cheesemaker Nicolas Baud make Abondance, Reblochon, Tomme and other cheeses that are sold in the shop upstairs.

At the turn of the century, more than 200 men worked in Morzine’s slate mines, today only four men still do. Miner Franc Buet explains the process and demonstrates slate-cutting tools on Fridays at 11 a.m. The one-hour program is conducted primarily in French but with some English explanation. The mine is on the Route Des Ardoisieres, which is the road to the Avoriaz cablecar just past the rotary with the turn-off to Avoriaz resort. Look for the fish sign; while you’re here, you can also catch your dinner.

At Avoriaz, all in a small radius and easy to find are parasailing, ultralights, squash courts, a fitness center with exercise machines, weights, sauna and whirlpool tubs, skating rink, dog sleighs, horse sleighs a cinema and bowling alley.

The tourist office publishes a regular schedule of movies. A multi-activities card, available for €23 per person/week or €20 with a six-day Portes du Soleil ski pass, provides unlimited entrance to the ice-skating rink, including skates, the fitness center, squash and the Turkish bath. A weekly entertainment program is also offered. It may include balloon sculptures, skate-dance parties and children’s programs; mostof which are free.