Meribel

In February of 2000 (in the wake of the Y2K non-event) Cindy and I ventured to Les Trois Vallées (The Three Valleys), an Alpine skiing mecca in the southeastern corner of France.  This week-long group trip organized by the infamous Earl Holliday, founder of the Wintergreen Alpine Ski Club.  Our group of around 40 people flew into Geneva and then boarded a charter bus for the 2-1/2 hour drive to Meribel, our home base for the week.  We spent most of our time skiing around Meribel, but we also crossed over to explore Courchevel and Val Thorens, the other two major towns that make up The Three Valleys.

The group was divided into two rental chalets, each complete with a staff to handle cooking, housekeeping, and courtesy shuttle driving responsibilities.  The staff for our chalet (the lovely and quite large Chalet la Chouette) consisted of two grad students from the UK which greatly eased any language barriers that might have otherwise existed. 

Each day started with coffee delivery to our room, followed by breakfast downstairs and a shuttle ride to the slopes in the chalet’s van.  We would have lunch on the slopes and then after an afternoon of skiing would re-group for après ski at the resort center, either at Jack’s Bar (if the weather forced us inside) or at the Cactus Cafe (if we could sit outside on the terrace and enjoy the late day sunshine).  The van would then pick us up and take us back to the chalet for afternoon tea (the staff was British, after all) while our dinner was being prepared.

Speaking of dinner, the chalet’s services included complimentary wine and beer during the meal, but once the cheese course was served there would be a per-bottle charge for any wine consumed afterwards around the fireplace.  The chalet staff was very good about managing this and each evening would call loudly from the kitchen that “we’re about to serve the cheese” which was the signal for everyone around the table to order one more free bottle of wine to last the evening.