When: 20/12/2012 Where: Courcheval, 3 Valleys, France Stayed: Mercure, Courcheval 1850
There’s nothing quite like a skiing holiday with good mates. It’s a fail safe recipe for a good time – even if you do battle with poor form on the slopes, your friends are on hand to remind you of the funny side of your inadequacies. Thanks guys. BMac summed up the first ski trip of the season beautifully using a cricket analogy – ‘skiing is a bit like doing nothing for 6 months and then facing Brett Lee on the pitch…’ How right you are BMac. This is not a sport that you can practice year round and come out with all guns blazing at the start of the season. You literally do nothing and then strap on your skis and hope for the best. Those of us not up to par on the slopes to begin with are literally moving hazards! aka Justin and Cathy…
Courcheval is the most eastern ski resort of the 3 valleys in the French Alps. The ski area is said to be the largest in the world with over 600km of connected ski slopes providing an endless amount of ground to play in. It is often hailed as the “best ski resort in Europe, if you can afford it”. Perhaps that explains why the lifts were basically queue free…?! Apparently Courcheval 1850 ranks as the 6th most expensive place in the world (information that would’ve been handy prior to booking!!) and it’s become such a prestigious resort, the French introduced a 6 star rating system for hotels they call ‘palaces’. (what?!) There are 7 restaurants with Michelin star status and numerous designer shops including Louis Vuitton, Prada and Chanel. No riff raff here. The resort is simply beautiful – with gingerbread style houses covered in snow, fairy lights galore, christmas trees twinkling in the forest and warm wooden chalet style buildings lining the roads. If the wind is blowing in the right direction you can smell the money…not ours of course. I’ve never seen so much animal fur, white polyester and toy pooches in one place – needless to say, people watching was at an absolute premium!
We stayed at the Mercure Hotel which was a lovely little ski-in and out 3 star hotel – a glorious 50m from Jardin Alpin gondola. We had a view from our room across the iced over lake to the ski fields; which was divine to wake up to but also an acute reminder of the near stacks from the day before! Warm and welcoming with a roaring open fire in the bar area and extremely friendly staff (I counted 8 ‘bonjour’s’ one morning on my way to breakfast!) the Mercure ticked all the boxes. Jardin Alpin also gave us direct access to both the ski fields and also the main village of Courcheval 1850 – who doesn’t love catching a gondola to dinner?!
Food was a major theme for our trip – huge surprise. Initially we fretted about how were were going to eat once the true VIP status of the resort sunk in. The good news is, if you’re prepared to do a bit of searching, there is still value to be found in Courcheval. Baguettes and crepes for lunch in the village (not on the mountain), pizza for dinner and apres ski kick off in your hotel room works a treat! We also managed to find a very cool bar / restaurant called L’Equipe with fantastic service and a buzzing atmosphere which didn’t break the bank. La Cloche on our final night also served up some incredible French food in a cosy and festive setting.
Doing as the Europeans do, we had our Chrissy celebrations on Christmas Eve. Adorned in our gaudy Christmas jumpers, blow up crowns on our heads and lulled by the dulcet tones of Michael Buble, we kicked off Chrissy Eve with some secret santa action. Sitting in the bar area with tears running down our faces and making little strangled screeching noises from laughing we may have frightened a few children. Pretty sure most people were happy to see us dash for the 8pm gondola to leave them in peace! Le Genepi cooked up a fine feast for dinner with outstanding food, friendly wait staff, a warm and cosy setting, tasteful and festive decorations and of course a hefty bill to send us on our merry way. Oh well, when in Rome!
The snow conditions delivered a mixed bag over the 4 days. Freshly groomed and speedy, icy and scary, mushy and tough to turn in, sparse and dangerous, powdery and challenging pistes – we had it all. Fortunately it snowed one day giving us plenty to play in at the Courcheval 1850 level and above. Anything below was a tad unfriendly. Day 3 we hauled ourselves across to Val Thorens and reached pretty much the highest point in the 3 valleys at 3100m. After flying down what we considered the speed track several times, we kicked back mountainside with our panini’s and coffees in the sun feeling pretty happy with ourselves. Tres bien! The old legs were completely and utterly gone by the end of the 4th day – in the absence of a warning sign to hang around my neck, we kept the action to only a few hours.
Despite the pricey reputation of Courcheval, we managed to enjoy great skiing conditions without the crowds, and glorious food that didn’t make us feel like the bottom of our pants had been ripped out. However I’ve never been made more aware of my true income bracket. With fur coats being sold for around €95,000 up the road, my Zara jacket (bought on sale) didn’t really fit in. The absence of a Russian accent also didn’t help our blending potential and I’m not convinced our festive christmas attire helped our situation either…
Cathy & Justin Abroad 