First of all, this being France, the food was somewhere in the vicinity of 900 to 1000% better than anything you would ever find on the slopes in Australia. French people of course love their food, and just because you are skiing does not mean that you should miss out on sitting down and having a proper meal. Some of the restaurants we ate at up on the mountain were exceptional, as were those in the villiage. It certainly puts to shame some of the crap school camp style bistros you find on the slopes in Australia. (I am looking at you Blue Cow Terminal)
We sampled some of the local delicacies. Savoie was the region we were in, which as it turns out is the home of fondue. During our stay we sampled a couple of different types of Fondue. One was your traditional cheese type, which involved three types of cheese (beaufort, reblochon, and comte) mixed together in a heated pot, in which you dip your cured meats. The other style of fondue which we had, was a heated pot of red wine and meat broth, in which you dip cubes of raw steak. The heat of the liquid cooks the meat and it soaks up the flavour of the red wine & beef stock as part of the process. Obviously you hold your little cube in there for as little or as long as you like depending on how you like your steak.
Just because your are heading to the snow, doesn't mean you need to leave your dog back in Paris. French people love their dogs and it would be unfair that the smallest member of any French family should miss out on the annual skiing trip. I saw pooches of all sizes being walked around in the snow, (and of course pissing and crapping in the snow). I am a little unsure what the dogs do all day while their owners are out skiing however. I would imagine that there are a few carpets in Le Corbier that had become a little soiled because some poor pooch was cooped up inside for a wee bit too long while their owner had a little aperitif after a hard days skiing.
This resort would have been a great place to be a 'Liftie'. They didn't seem to do much, apart from sit in their warm little huts at the top/bottom of the ski lifs, and come out only when there was a problem. Oh sorry, did I say problem, I meant cigarette. There was not one T-bar at the entire resort (which had 72 lifts), only chair lifts and poma/j-bars. It quickly hit me why there were no T-bars at the resort, if there were T-bars, then that would mean that the lifties would actually have to do some work. Grabbing each and every T-bar down and sticking it on the arse of customers all day would not be a French persons idea of a decent job. Most of the Poma/J-bars were self service, and the liftie only came out of his/her hut if there was a major issue. Even the Poma/J-bars in Oz, are not self service, you still have a Liftie who grabs it and puts it in your arse for you, so this was a little strange to get used to.
Lift passes, were awesome, they worked on RFID. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, its the same as your little security tag at work that unlocks the door when you swipe your card near it. (Or like the E-Tag in your car at the toll booth) Each lift has a little gate, and if you are carrying a skipass as you get close to the gate it reads your pass and the gate opens. Awesome! Perisher pull your finger out and get it.
Le Corbier is part of a group of 6 ski resorts all connected called 'Les Sybelles' and is the 3rd largest resort in France. It was pretty enormous (over twice the size of Perisher Blue) so we were pretty spoilt for choice over places to ski. It was certainly a lot steeper than I had been used to in Australia and I did feel sorry for those who were learning to ski there. There were plenty of people snow plowing down runs that were way beyond their level of ability because there was not a lot of good areas for beginners. The snow was awesome and a week is never enough for skiing. But its better than nothing.
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