Things to do in Courchevel

Courchevel is a string of villages up one mountainside rather than a single resort. Each was known by its altitude in metres until 2011, and the numbers still turn up in conversation. The official names are different now.

The villages and the lift system

• Le Praz. The old Savoyard village lowest down, around 1300 metres, with the ski jumps built for the Albertville Games.
• Village and Moriond. The middle pair, formerly 1550 and 1650, quieter and cheaper than the top.
• Courchevel itself. The old 1850, where the fur shops and the starred kitchens are.
• Les Trois Vallees. The biggest linked ski area in France, putting roughly six hundred kilometres of piste on one pass.
• The altiport. A short runway cut into the slope above the top village, climbing steeply as it goes, worked by light aircraft and helicopters.

What the mountain sells besides skiing

Instruction rather than lift passes is the thing booked here. A full day with a private instructor buys knowledge of which valley to be in at which hour. The rest of it leaves the ground.

• Paragliding. Tandem flights run from ten minutes for children through half-hour and hour descents to a full day, and one version sleeps out on the mountain.
• Helicopters. Sightseeing flights of ten, thirty and sixty minutes lift from the altiport and turn towards Mont Blanc.
• After the lifts shut. Snowmobile outings in the evening, and a horse-drawn carriage still doing the circuit of the top village.
• Heli-skiing. Sold here but flown out, because French law forbids dropping skiers by helicopter; the day crosses into Italy instead.
• Summer. The same slopes are hiked and ridden, and the flying carries on unchanged.

Practical

• Season. Roughly early December to mid-April, and at this height snow is rarely the thing that goes wrong.
• Wind. It grounds paragliding and helicopters long before it closes lifts, so leave slack in the week for a flight.
• Getting here. Geneva and Lyon are both around two and a half hours by road, Chambery rather less.
• Saturdays. Changeover day across the Alps, when transfers sell out entirely and the valley road crawls.
• Money. The top village is among the steepest in the French Alps, and the same lunch costs about half as much down in Le Praz.
• Tipping. Not expected in general; instructors are the exception, and a good day usually gets twenty or thirty euros.