Courchevel Snow Report: 22nd December 2011

Monday was the day for the drive south this year through England and France for your Courchnet Snow Reporter and I’m now back for the 7th Season in a row with the role of keeping you up to date with the snow conditions, restaurants, what’s new and any helpful things which might help you have a great holiday.

Let’s start with the weather. There was green grass everywhere until last Monday, December 12th, when it started to snow….and it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. 15cms a day for the next 10 days in a row with the occasional 50cm day. 196cm. is the snow depth on piste at the top of La Saulire with 115cms. in the resort. I’m pretty sure that’s more snow than we had at any time last season.

All lifts are now open except for those on the far left of the piste map (Chapelets, Chanrossa, Creux Noirs).

So how has Courchevel changed this year? Well there are some lift changes and some musical chairs at the restaurants. The Plantrey chair (the first ever high speed demountable chair in 1983) has been retired and replaced with a new 6-person chair. It’s more comfortable, faster and a great improvement (….now if they’d just replace Biollay too….). Meribel have replaced the top stage of the Meribel-Saulire bubble with a new high speed bubble which now arrives in Courchevel alongside the Saulire Cable car at the top of the Grand Couloir. Some of the chairlifts in Courchevel (Suisse for example) now have a safety bar which is ‘locked’ until the chair is almost into the arrival area to avoid premature evacuation. Anyone who gets vertigo on the Suisse chair (like me!) will welcome this enormously.

On the subject of musical chairs at the restaurants, the lady who ran the new last year (and very successful) on-piste snack bar below the Bel Air restaurant has relinquished control to Christophe Gormier’s cousin (Christophe runs the Bel Air upstairs). She has bought L’Eterlou restaurant in 1650 (the chalet-girl-night-off institution and great value lunch stop) and renamed it L’Arc en Ciel. This was the name of the restaurant with the balcony in the Verdon bubble station until it was assimilated into Le Verdons restaurant a couple of years ago. Her husband (…are you still with me?) was the head chef there and the ‘new’ Eterlou (aka Arc en Ciel or rainbow in English) has a menu which is a blend of the Eterlou/Arc en Ciel. All the old favourites and great pizzas plus a plat du jour at €14. They are open ‘non-stop’ from noon with a few more upmarket dishes on the evening menu. The people who ran L’Eterlou for a number of years now have a cheese shop near the cinema (…are you sure you’re still following this?).

Following the Great Fire of Courchevel 1650 in February last year which closed the restaurants and bars below the Pierre et Vacances Apartments, the Bubble Bar and the Pizza have re-opened but sadly La Boulotte is still closed. I was told today that there is a ‘Tribune’ meeting in January with something to do with ‘Assurance’ being a problem. Let’s wish Katie good luck and hope she manages to reopen as her ‘full English breakfast’ and ‘Wednesday night curry’ are sorely missed…. Not to mention her wonderful personality.

Good news for those who hate change…. Le Bouc Blanc restaurant is exactly the same (plat du jour up a whole 20 centimes to €14), as is the self service restaurant Le Chenus.

Today was a bit of a letdown though. Much too warm and it even rained this afternoon. The weather looks to be colder and brighter from this weekend onwards so with all this snow, Christmas / New Year week looks like a cracker.