Summer
The Mollard lake: supervised swimming, inflatables and a leisure area
350 m from the apartment, the Mollard lake stores water for snowmaking in winter and becomes a swimming spot in summer, supervised from 1 July to 31 August, noon to 6 pm.
350 metres from the apartment, the Mollard lake leads a double life: a snowmaking reservoir in winter, a leisure and swimming spot in summer. Between July and August it is the meeting place of the whole sector.
Swimming
The lake is open for swimming in summer and supervised from 1 July to 31 August, daily from noon to 6 pm. Outside those hours, swimming is unsupervised.
This is mountain water at 1,630 metres: it has to be earned early in the season, and becomes genuinely pleasant at the height of summer.
What is around it
- An inflatable play structure on the water — the thing that keeps children busy for a whole afternoon.
- A paddling pool for the smallest.
- Picnic tables.
- A pétanque pitch and a volleyball court.
- Public toilets.
A second leisure area sits across the road at the Col du Mollard, with a supervised lake and paddling pool, toilets, pétanque, a playground and a picnic area.
The walk round: 30 minutes
The loop around the lake is a family walk starting directly from the apartment, very well exposed, with little height gain and 30 minutes of walking. It looks out over the Aiguilles d'Arves, the Étendard glacier and the Arvan valley.
It is the end-of-day stroll par excellence, and the best spot in the sector to photograph the Aiguilles at sunset: the lake reflects them.
The five other waymarked routes in the commune are described in our article on six waymarked walks from Albiez-Montrond.
The same lake in winter
From December to March, the lake serves as the water reservoir for the ski area's 50 snow cannons. It underwrites part of the resort's snow cover. The walk around it is still possible, in an entirely different setting.
Distance from the apartment: 350 m
Supervised swimming: 01/07 to 31/08, daily from noon to 6 pm
Lake loop: 30 min, little height gain
Other summer activities — ponies, BMX and mountain biking — are a few hundred metres away. The full picture is on the summer page.
Read next
- The Col du Mollard by bike: three climbs and the Arvan-Villards loopA Tour de France col whose summit is our village. Three ways up, plus a loop linking the Glandon, the Croix de Fer and the Mollard.
- The Rival forest, from 1,300 m up to the Col du Mollard700 metres of forest, mushrooms, waterfalls — and deer you can hear rutting in the autumn.
- Le Chalet d'la Croë, a refuge at 2,076 m below the Aiguilles d'ArvesA crêpe or a raclette mid-hike, and geodesic domes to sleep under the alpine night sky.