i live and work in chamonix. i've been here for 35 years now. the situation now with very few tourists is extremely strange. it's one that i have never experienced. yes, it's a very sad situation for all of the people who depend on tourism for their livelihoods. like other european countries, france has decided to shut its restaurants and bars, and a curfew now moved to 6pm means all apres ski activities are curtailed. it's a major blow for the people working here in the valley. there's no talk of reopening yet though, the government has confirmed that ski lifts will remain shut in february. i'm sure the season is dead, i'm sure about that. compared to december last year, our turnover is down by 62%, which is enormous. and because of this, i have been employing only four seasonals instead of 21 normally. at the moment, our clients are the locals and we have also people coming from switzerland — a few of them. but there is no more foreigners in chamonix and this is how we live normally with the foreigners and for the moment, we don't have any.

we've never seen that in chamonix. i have never seen that, never. we had so many people trying to have some lessons. - we didn't have enough ski instructors in the valley. i that was incredible! some people will come back to cross—country skiing next year, too, because they enjoy it. you see where we are — look at the snow, the snow on the trees. it is much more quiet than downhill skiing. you have got always got the noise of the lifts and the chairlifts, it's very noisy. here it's — it's a totally different atmosphere, so i think they enjoy this a lot. welcome back to london, city in lockdown will be getting used to sing deserted streets. last year, before the current travel restrictions were in place, i went to italy to a hilltop village that's in exactly that situation, civita. today they call it �*the dying town' but it was once home to more than 3,000 people. now they reckon there are just seven permanent residents here. and they are heavily outnumbered by tourists — up to 10,000 a day. this bridge, by the way, is the only way up to t