Covid: French ski season in disarray as UK tourists banned

The early season snow on the pine-filled slopes of Mont Blanc is the best Chamonix has seen for years. There just aren’t the British skiers to enjoy it.

It had looked like being a bumper Christmas for France’s ski resorts, with flights and ferries from Britain fully booked.

But then came a warning from France’s government last Thursday of “a landslide” – not on its own mountains, but of the Omicron coronavirus variant careering through the UK.

All non-essential travel from Britain was to be banned. And suddenly cancellations replaced arrivals.