Friday, March 9, 2012

2012 Ski Trip to Courchevel


Tony and I hadn't gone skiing for 2 years, so when we decided to go this year, I asked two of my coworkers, Stuart and Steven, where they would recommend. They were both in agreement - Courchevel, France.

We booked our flight and hotel package through Flexi-ski, with whom I have some issues but we'll talk more about that later. We decided on a Half-Board Hotel in Courchevel. This meant that we would have our breakfasts and dinners provided at the hotel, but would be free to get lunch wherever we would like on the slopes.




We woke at 3:30 in the morning to be ready for our ride to Gatwick Airport, which is about 1.5 hours away. In order to simplify our journey to the airport, we hired a car as opposed to riding the bus to the train station to get the train to the airport. It was definitely worthwhile given that we had all of our ski equipment, and that there are so few buses and trains this early in the morning.




We arrived at the airport at 5:30 in the morning for our 7:30 flight to Grenoble. It may sound strange, but we've almost gotten used to this sort of crazy travel day schedule. Upon our arrival in Grenoble, we had to take an hour bus ride into town to the train station to catch our 2 hour train ride from Grenoble to Moutiers. From Moutiers, we would catch another bus for the final 1 hour bus ride up to the resort in Courchevel. It was an exhausting 12 hours of travel.




We had lunch in Grenoble at the Quick hamburger stand where they had Star Wars themed burgers. There was also a poster hanging for John Carter with my apes pictured on it. It is always fun to see posters for films that I've worked on, on display in foreign languages.



The train ride from Grenoble to Moutiers was pretty as we passed through vineyards with castles perched above. It would be fun to come back here and do some wine tasting.






By the time we arrived in Moutiers after having very little sleep the night before, we were both beginning to feel tired and frosty.



And by the time we reached Courchevel, we were exhausted. We had to walk about 3 blocks uphill from the bus station, and it felt like a long way.

Our hotel, St. Louis, was comfortable, but not as fabulous as we had hoped. But they served great food, and the bed was soft. I think we ate, and then fell immediately asleep.








The nice bottle of French wine we had with dinner didn't hurt either. . .

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