Hello friends.
We are in Lyon.
There are two main airports
to arrive Alps,
French Alps.
One of them is Lyon
and other one is Genova.
I usually prefer Lyon.
When you land Genova, it's more
expensive to rent a car. Actually it's also expensive in here.
Now we rented our minibus
and we are on the way.
We'll go to Les Trois
Vallees(Three Valley) via Grenoble.
We're going to the world's biggest
ski area that 8 ski center
got together like
Courchevel, Meribel,
Les Menuires and
Saint-Martin.
There isn't much snow down here.
Actually we are close, we're in the Alps.
We have nearly there.
We will see what comes next together.
As you see we can directly start skiing from our hotel room.
Hotels are usually
like this "ski-in/ski-out" in the Alps.
It's like, you get out your room,
bind your skiis and start skiing.
Then you go back in from the middle of the track.
Or there are apart hotels in the city center,
by saying city center I mean ski centers like Meribel,
Courchevel
Or you stay there
and go to lifts
with busses.
Of course this is more fun and easy.
I'm at the center of Meribel.
Weather was terrible in the morning.
Fog and precipitation...
Now it's clear
The hill you see right behind me... Is it visible? Yes.
The hill you see right behind me,
I'm wearing glasses because of sun,
, is about 3000m high.
3000-2970m if I'm not wrong.
We came down from there. It has great tracks.
It's about 4-4,5km from there to here,
slopes of Meribel.
We are at the center of Meribel.
We are at the distribution point.
Let's see the environment.
Cafes and restaurants are behind me.
Well, center of Meribel.
The center. Meribel is not a large place.
It has a center like this.
There are gondolas to the left,
to there
and to there.
Like this.
Well, let's walk to the cafes.
Really crowded. We're talking about weekday.
I mean they established
such a winter tourism,
it's amazing. It amazes me everytime.
I come here since I was a child, my admiration,
my astonisment never changes.
It's Thursday. Just think that.
It's March and Thursday
and crowded. Just look,
amazing, well done.
They do everything.
They spent billions of euros
from cafes and hotels to mechanical facilities.
They get in return for their work. Now we are in cafe area.
I will Show some
menus to give you idea
expensive because of the increase
in exchange rates
For example this place
has normal prices
Sandwiches are 5€ but this is a snack bar,
it's self service.
Let's show a restaurant to see what are the prices in there.
This
restaurant is a bit more expensive.
Look at the prices.
Kid's menu is 10,50€,
fondue is
22€ per person.
What is this? I can't understand it.
Something like fondue
is 29€,
these prices are per person.
As I said Euro is abour 4₺
and these places are
really expensive because of that.
I think this is the best pizza place in Meribel.
Such a joyful restaurant.
This is the ground floor.
My favourite thing in here is;
every place has a Gusto.
I mean the things on the wall.
Just look.
They put these little beautiful things
on the walls that
we can't find in Turkey,
except some specific places.
Classical Alps style.
A classical Alp restaurant.
This Three Valleys
is a huge area but
we can only see Meribel in this map.
Opened and closed tracks.
This is just Meribel.
One of the Three Valleys.
From left you can go to Courchevel.
If you ski from there to the back,
there are
Val Thorens and Les Menuires.
Well,
we found a better map.
Three Valley,
very clear.
Meribel in the middle,
Courchevel is 12minutes away,
Les Menuires 15 minutes and Val Thorens
is 20 minutes away.
"The world's largest ski area"
The world's largest ski area.
True.
Why? Don't think as only Meribel.
They conected three valleys.
Sorry four.
I mean four ski centers in three valleys
and
it became the world's largest ski center.
From this way we will reach Val Thorens
and Les Menuires with
this gondola.
With this
we go across the mountain.
Well, sun is up.
- Great. - Yes.
- Gondolas are from 1970s. - From 1970s yes.
It can collapse anytime.
Don't jinx it.
- Pray for it hodja. - I am praying.
Pray so we won't fall down.
Behind the hill there are Val Thorens and Les Menuires.
Down side is
Meribel and Courchevel.
We are on the peak of Val Thorens.
Amazing view.
We woke up to a great day.
There's storm tomorrow. We should enjoy today.
Les Menuires.
This is the town.
Alps,
as much as you can see.
Amazing landscape.
We are going down to Meribel.
We will take the gondola and head to Courchevel.
We are on the gondola.
We're climbing to Courchevel.
We are at
the hill between Meribel
and Courchevel.
This side of the hill
is Meribel,
and down here,
you can see Courchevel 1850. There are more than one Courchevel,
it's a marketing method I guess.
They named Courchevel to four different towns because it is very popular.
We will ski to there.
That's the situtaion.
We are nearly at Courchevel.
Below here is Courchevel.
This is the main track.
Major basin let's say.
We saw a great cafe
on our way to Courchevel. Really elegant.
Right guys?
- What do you say Ökkeş? - Great.
Let's take a tour.
Architecture,
ambiance...
It's not possible not to be amazed.
Outfit of waiters are stylish.
This is the place. In the middle of trees,
gondolas are above us.
That's the situation. Beautiful,
really beautiful. Let's look at the menu.
For example Coca Cola is 7€.
How much is it in Turkish Liras?
26-28₺ right?
Prices are like this.
Think again before saying expensive to the ski centers in Turkey.
You sould
see this cafe. Such an ambiance in
the middle of mountains, amazing.
We are on the top of the mountain.
Dessert buffet.
There is an amazing fireplace.
We are down at Courchevel 1850.
This is the center.
1850 is not the year 1850, it's 1850 meters. Altitude is1850 meters.
There are gondolas from right, middle
and left. Gondolas are going three different directions.
Well, we are in the center of Courchevel.
There's not only one Courchevel.
There are four I guess.
This one is 1850,
the one with the altitude 1850 meters.
This is
one of the classiest
ski centers in the
world.
To name a few,
Aspen at America,
this place at Europe.
What else?
Maybe St. Moritz. These are the... We can say Lech at Austria.
These are really expensive ski centers.
There are phaetons over there. This is the center.
Shops, gondolas over there. We came here by skis.
You can see ESF
all around France. Ecole Du Ski Français.
France Ski School.
One of the most important two ski schools in the world.
One of them is Austria Ski School and other one is France Ski School, Skii Ecole.
These are the prices.
This is the kids prices,
it says 278€.
That's for a week. Give your kid
and 278€, kid can ski for a week.
That's really advantegous. The biggest advantage in Europe,
if you want to take hourly class it is very expensive.
But if you want to take it with a group,
prices go down incredibly.
Let's take a look at the ski room.
You can try ski shoes in here.
They do the maintance for skis in here. Every ski room usually
have a maintance unit.
Well, skis for rent.
We just talked.
Rents are a bit expensive in here.
If you don't want to carry your ski,
beginner skis
start from 100-110-120€ for six days.
It's 400-500₺ for beginners.
Professionals, I mean if you can say you are a good skier,
it goes up to 300€.
It's about 1100-1200₺ for six days per person.
You have to accept those prices
if you don't want to carry your ski.
Weather is nice. İt's sunny.
Ground is visible, no problem.
This is an amazing track. Just look.
There is also a great track. Right over there.
I will make a general comment; not just about Courchevel,
about these 8 ski centers, Meribel
Les Meruires, Val Thorens,
about this area, about Three Valleys;
about this area, about Three Valleys;
there are many bumps on the tracks that they classified as red.
there are many bumps on the tracks that they classified as red.
People who can easily ski at red tracks will have a hard time at these tracks.
Right behind me,
I think it's not red,
it's black.
Weather is bad today.
Wind was 50 km/h in the morning.
There was blizzard. But
then wind slowed down at least. Blizzard continues.
This is mid-station.
They clesd the way up from here.
Look it says; closed because of wind, only TC(Republic of Turkey) citizens can go up.
That's why we are going up.
It's just a jokeIt's closed due to strong wind.Normally it continues up from here
But it's totally closed, we can't even see the gondolas.
It is a shame, the day we are returning...
Yes,
that's the view. The best weather since we come here.
Shame. We are leaving this.
No comments:
Post a Comment