When Céüze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the workers assumed they would be back the following winter. The Céüze resort in the southern French Alps had been open for 85 years and was one of the oldest in the country. Today, it is one of scores of ski resorts abandoned across France – part of a new landscape of “ghost stations”. The old sheds at each end of the ski lifts often still contain transformers, asbestos, motor oils and greases. The resort’s ski lifts were airlifted out using a helicopter to minimise environmental disturbance and compression of the earth.

Source: The Guardian December 27, 2025 16:01 UTC