!!!Courchevel, Méribel and Val Thorens ski resorts

Photos by Dmitry Moiseenko and Oleg Gaponyuk
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

20 March 2019

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

There are thousands of ski resorts in the world, but Courchevel in the
French Alps is one of the most famous of them. Many millionaires and
celebrities from all over the world come here for recreational and
leisure purposes, so this place has become the symbol of luxury. In
1992, the Courchevel valley took some competitions of the XVI Winter
Olympic Games.

[{Image src='01_Courchevel, France.jpg' caption='Courchevel, France\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='361'}]

This place has a rather unusual history: comparing to other ski resorts
based around existing mountain villages, Courchevel was built almost
from scratch. At the end of 1930ies, the Tourism Committee of France was
looking for the place to create a "super-resort" in order to compete
with Switzerland. It was supposed to be a territory with a 1,400-1,800
meters altitude drop that could be accessible for transport and suitable
for the creation of a lift system.

[{Image src='02_Courchevel, France.jpg' caption='Courchevel, France\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='568'}]

The area of the modern resort located in Les Trois Vallées (The Three
Valleys) in Savoie département ideally suited the identified purposes,
but the realization was prevented by World War II. The first ski lift
started operating in 1946. At the same time, chalets were under
construction, and the architects faced a challenge: the Bauhaus
architecture school was dominating at that time in Europe. Its tendency
to strict geometrical forms with no-frills could spoil the appearance of
the resort.

[{Image src='03_Courchevel, France.jpg' caption='Courchevel, France\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='306'}]

So the architects were brave enough to go against the tendencies and
create the buildings that suit the landscape and exist in harmony with
the surrounding nature. The fronts of the chalets face the sun, have
huge windows and some of the houses stand on 5-meters high pillars.
These ideas were warmly greeted by people and it served a good
advertisement for the resort.

[{Image src='04_Courchevel 1850.jpg' caption='Courchevel 1850\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='886'}]

The ski season in Courchevel lasts from the end of November till the
beginning of May. Nowadays hundreds of hotels are functioning here,
while the ski facilities have stretched at four stations: Courchevel
1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond) and
Courchevel 1850. The last name is a little bit confusing: in fact, this
complex stands at 1,747 meters high, but the administration has decided
to round up the figure in order not to cede the neighbouring resort of
Val-d'Isère.

[{Image src='05_Meribel ski resort.jpg' caption='Méribel ski resort\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='278'}]

The other villages of Les Trois Vallées, in their turn, were inspired by
the success of Courchevel, started developing as ski destinations and
eventually merging their ski slopes (the first one to do it was Méribel
in the 1950ies). And now, Les Trois Vallées is the largest ski area in
the world with more than 600 km of ski slopes and 8 resorts. Therefore,
we are inviting you to get acquainted with very popular Courchevel, cozy
Méribel and the highest resort in Europe — Val Thorens.

\\ \\
[12 panoramas of Courchevel, Méribel and Val Thorens ski resorts|Geography/Europe/France/Pictures/Courchevel,_M_ribel_and_Val_Thorens_ski_resorts]

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