jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Following last year's visit to Austria's Vorarlberg, I decided to head back to a francophone region on this season's trip to the Alps, so the obvious gateway airport is Geneva. Given that there are so many ski areas/regions in such close proximity, no surprise that it's outfitted with a major-league conveyor to dispense with ski and snowboard equipment:
After getting my rental car and making a couple wrong turns while leaving the city, I still managed to arrive in the village of Châtel (pronounced SHAH-tell) by 10:45. It's one of the larger of the villages in the massive Portes du Soleil region that I visited two years ago, but that time I stayed on the other end, in Les Gets and Morzine. Châtel is more centrally located and well connected to high-elevation Avoriaz and the south-facing Swiss sectors.
By the way, if you're wondering how big the Portes du Soleil is, check out this interface designed by a British marketing company called French Ski Area Over My Town that allows you to overlay France's biggest ski regions on top of a location that you know well. Pretty frightening how much ground they cover!
I quickly headed over to the Pre-la Joux sector, on the looker's right of the map:
Got drinks at the bar with some new acquaintances (the Leffe beer is mine):
Lunch in the sun:
Then spent the afternoon checking out the slopes with a local who's a ski instructor during the winter and a paraglide host during the rest of the year. Nice life!
After getting pummeled by snow over the first three weeks of January, there's been an unfortunately-timed Alps-wide thaw/refreeze cycle lately that's left conditions kinda scratchy, so going off-piste was at your own risk. Being at a comparatively modest altitude means that periods like this don't work to Chatel's advantage, but even when things aren't optimum, it's amazing to go traveling on skis over such a huge distance:
This skier was going switch full speed:
In addition to being a gorgeous village, Châtel’s secret sauce is being part of the agricultural Vallée d’Abondance and reportedly boasting 30 working farms. As this sculpture demonstrates (yes, those are skis), cows are a big part of the local culture:
And it goes without saying that cheese is a real point of pride here:
So I visited nearby Fromage d'Abondance and got a quick tour of their operations:
Said hello to the cows, most of which have a signature "sunglasses" effect around their eyes.
They all have names:
And enjoyed some nectar of the gods:
After getting my rental car and making a couple wrong turns while leaving the city, I still managed to arrive in the village of Châtel (pronounced SHAH-tell) by 10:45. It's one of the larger of the villages in the massive Portes du Soleil region that I visited two years ago, but that time I stayed on the other end, in Les Gets and Morzine. Châtel is more centrally located and well connected to high-elevation Avoriaz and the south-facing Swiss sectors.
By the way, if you're wondering how big the Portes du Soleil is, check out this interface designed by a British marketing company called French Ski Area Over My Town that allows you to overlay France's biggest ski regions on top of a location that you know well. Pretty frightening how much ground they cover!
I quickly headed over to the Pre-la Joux sector, on the looker's right of the map:
Got drinks at the bar with some new acquaintances (the Leffe beer is mine):
Lunch in the sun:
Then spent the afternoon checking out the slopes with a local who's a ski instructor during the winter and a paraglide host during the rest of the year. Nice life!
After getting pummeled by snow over the first three weeks of January, there's been an unfortunately-timed Alps-wide thaw/refreeze cycle lately that's left conditions kinda scratchy, so going off-piste was at your own risk. Being at a comparatively modest altitude means that periods like this don't work to Chatel's advantage, but even when things aren't optimum, it's amazing to go traveling on skis over such a huge distance:
This skier was going switch full speed:
In addition to being a gorgeous village, Châtel’s secret sauce is being part of the agricultural Vallée d’Abondance and reportedly boasting 30 working farms. As this sculpture demonstrates (yes, those are skis), cows are a big part of the local culture:
And it goes without saying that cheese is a real point of pride here:
So I visited nearby Fromage d'Abondance and got a quick tour of their operations:
Said hello to the cows, most of which have a signature "sunglasses" effect around their eyes.
They all have names:
And enjoyed some nectar of the gods:
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