A picture taken on Dec 1, 2020 shows a closed ski lift at the entrance of the French ski resort of Chatel that shares its ski area "Les Portes du Soleil" (The Gates of the Sun in French) with neighbouring Switzerland. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

CHATEL, France/LES CROSETS, Switzerland - Like other French ski resorts, the Alpine town of Chatel has been forced to close its lifts over the Christmas period as part of tougher government curbs to contain the coronavirus.

Jean-Francois Vuarand, Chatel’s tourism chief, said the year-end holidays normally generated a 5th of winter season turnover

But just 5 km away, holidaymakers are schussing down the same slopes on the other side of the border in Switzerland, where less strict restrictions mean it’s business as usual in the Dents du Midi ski region.

Chatel mayor Nicolas Rubin was so annoyed by the sharp divergence in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic that he hung Swiss flags from the town hall windows for a week in protest.

“Of course we are worried, because beyond the closing of the ski resort the morale and the mental health of people is starting to be affected,” he said.

Mayor of French ski resort of Chatel, Nicolas Rubin poses on Dec 1, 2020 in front of his town hall ardoned with Swiss flags, to protest against the decision from French government to keep the ski lifts closed while just a few kilometers away in Switzerland the slopes remain open. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

Jean-Francois Vuarand, Chatel’s tourism chief, said the year-end holidays normally generated a fifth of winter season turnover.

“The problem is... it is difficult to make customers understand that at the border, in these two nearby areas, there are two different rules for the same activity,” he said.

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For Quentin Decoursier, owner of restaurant Le Comptoir on the French side, the discrepancy is manifestly unfair.

“What is going to happen is that a lot of French people will go there (across the border) and we don’t understand because we have as much right as they have to be open,” he said.

This June 2, 2020, photo taken near Noville shows ducks flying above the Dents du Midi multi-summited mountain at sunset, located the Chablais Alps, western Switzerland. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

While the two countries have similar COVID-19 infection and fatality rates, Swiss authorities have let individual cantons decide whether lifts can operate safely, though Dents du Midi tourism director Sebastien Epiney said his community was also living on the edge.

“We are putting in place all our assets to offer a safe product to our customers, but the sword of Damocles is over our heads,” he said.

Yoan Perroud, shrugged of the risk of skiing, saying outdoor activity was not as risky as the restaurants and bars that support them.

“For me the problem is not the ski slopes, it’s what is next to them,” he said from Les Crosets, a resort on the Swiss side.