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.

“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”.

The frozen chair lifts are an unwelcome sight for Patrick Freudiger, the boss of the Télé-Dôle ski lifts company. “In mid-December, we organised a meeting between France and Switzerland to present the Covid-19 plan” for La Dole, Freudiger said. But since the end of December, “we have received three successive orders banning the use of the car park” – the latest being valid until February 3.

The prefecture of the Jura local authority in France said the car park was “likely to encourage the gathering of more than six people in a public space in France, the mixing of groups, and therefore the circulation of the virus”.

The wider Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region has the highest intensive care bed occupancy rate in France, while the Jura local authority area has one of the highest Covid-19 incidence rates in the country.

Freudiger is fuming that the French authorities did not try to reach an agreement on access to the car park. Rubbing salt into the wounds, the site was refurbished last year thanks to Swiss investment, as part of a project to create a cross-border ski destination.

Freudiger also voiced surprise that the car park was shut while car-pooling car parks for French inhabitants who work in Switzerland remained open.

“We tried to get in touch with the prefect; we could not reach him. They do not hear us, they won’t even listen to us,” said Produit.

Télé-Dôle filed two appeals last Friday to the Besançon administrative court in France. A hearing is expected to take place next Monday.

What’s terrible is that it’s the children who are victims of this political gameEtienne Bovard, director, La Dole’s Swiss Ski School

Switzerland’s Nyon region wrote to the Jura authorities on Thursday requesting talks “as soon as possible” on potential solutions and “financial compensation” for Télé-Dôle.

According to Freudiger, the ski lifts have already lost 40 working days – almost half the season – and 300,000 Swiss francs (US$340,000). Télé-Dôle cannot claim any financial assistance from the Swiss government, because there is nothing to stop ski stations remaining open during the pandemic.

Etienne Bovard, director of La Dole’s Swiss Ski School, faces the same headache. The school has around 20 instructors but has had to stop all group lessons. “In terms of turnover, we are 20 per cent down at the moment, and if this continues throughout February … it will amount to an 85 per cent loss,” he said.

“What’s terrible is that it’s the children,” who make up 80 per cent of the clientele, “who are victims of this political game.”

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