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26/08/2009
Issue S4

Who needs tv when you've got a show going on like this outside

Now the summer season has come to an end the heavens have opened and the resort emptied. Anyone who likes watching lightning & thunderstorm could do a lot worse than spending a weekend on my balcony. The 30+ centigrade heat has been replaced by heavy downfalls (hopefully a good sign for the winter). Much to the annoyance of all the builders stuck up on their respective roofs.

Alex, the editor.

What the f**k are Courchevel doing?

Following on from my rant about certain hoteliers at the end of last season I’ve expanded my vitriol to include the bunch of chimps who are apparently at the helm of the FSR Courch-tanic. While the rest of the planet is thinking of ways to keep their customers in an ever-decreasing market place Courchevel is obliviously raising the price of their lift passes like someone who thought that the phrases “200 percent mortgage” and “sub prime” were good bedfellows.

Now I know I won’t be troubling Alan Sugar’s position in the business world but even I know that lowering your prices is a good way of encouraging your customers to resort. Whereas Austrian resorts are filled with tour operators offering free lift-passes deals visitors to Courchevel will be asked to shell out 232 euros (up 3% from 225) for a 6 day three valley lift pass.

If last season the slopes were hypothetically at least 20 percent quieter than the season before then this upcoming season will be quieter by at least another 20 percent. Now if you can just stand around and watch your business lose nearly 50 percent of your turnover without batting an eyelid then it's lucky you don't have to answer to a bunch of irate shareholders.

With the recent news of the liquidation of a small but high-end chalet tour operator Descent the forecast for this season are worse than last year. With quite a lot of other operators dropping long term chalets the mountains will be even more deserted than last year.

There goes the environment

And it gets worse. Any environmentalist would pull his hair out if he saw the deforestation that is going on around the resort. Currently a large swade of trees older than me (that’s quite old) have been cleared to make way for yet another 4* luxe hotel.(pic right) Regardless of whether Courchevel actually needs yet another ultra rich luxury hotel I think their flagrant raping of the country-side all in name of the almighty euro. Now the land has been cleared it's time to spray concrete over the entire slope to stop it eroding.

On the other side of town the same thing has happened to the piste next to the board park. The forest has been cleared and piste has shrunk to make way for another group of large luxury chalets.

So instead of Courchevel, “the ritziest ski resort in the alps” you are left with Courchevel “with probably the most eyesores of any mountain in France” (with the exception of Les menuires but then that’s no surprise). As we start our guided tour of 1850 I would like to draw your attention to what looks like a strip mining operation and the future location of 4* luxe hotel number 20. As we move on into the resort we can see the massive half finished building site eyesore that replaces the old petrol station eyesore. Unfortunately the developers are having slight financial troubles which include their bank not giving them any money. If you’re lucky this will still be half finished by the time the UK host the olympics.

Anyway as we move another 100 yards if I can direct you to the large apartment block on the right called the Club hotel. Originally built before the word "ascetics" was in common use between alpine architects/builders, this building will probably out live everyone else as it mainly caters for the French holiday trade. Maybe if we can convince some nice Afghanistany gentlemen that this building represents the pinnacle of capitalism he will fly a piste basher into it when no one is looking.