French-Swiss relations take a frosty turn over ski slopes’ parking pickle

The closure of a cross-border car park in France that serves the pistes of La Dole has Swiss tourism authorities fuming

Now the chair lifts for La Dole sit unused, despite Switzerland keeping its ski slopes open during the pandemic

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The snow-covered car park at the centre of a dispute between France and Switzerland. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:45pm, 29 Jan 2021Updated: 7:26pm, 29 Jan 2021

Switzerland and France are in a snowball fight over a cross-border car park which serves Swiss ski slopes but has been closed by the French because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Battle of Dappes Car Park – for the moment a rather cold war – has been rumbling for weeks, triggered by the different Covid-19 rules on either side of an invisible line in a snow-covered field.

The 650-space car park sits in the valley between the pistes of La Dole, on the Swiss side, and Les Tuffes, in France. It is 250 metres (820 feet) inside French territory.

In the Jura mountains, the summit of La Dole overlooks Lake Geneva, in the west of Switzerland – a country which has kept ski slopes open despite the pandemic, while neighbouring France has closed its slopes. So the chair lifts for La Dole sit empty – because nobody can use the shared car park in France.

The chair lift station beside the car park stands frozen and unused. Photo: AFP

“I cannot understand how the French authorities can decide that the Swiss cannot go skiing in their own country. This is a unilateral decision,” fumed Gerard Produit, tourism chief in Switzerland’s Nyon region. “We are being held hostage by the politics of both countries,” he said, deploring the “legal imbroglio”.