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| Trial biking at la Chaudanne |
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In previous years the summer season has faded away gradually and ended very quietly. This year, however, the season is ending with a bang – in fact, several bangs. Last weekend saw one of the most prestigious events of the year, the finals of the French Mountain Biking Cup, which drew several thousand people to the resort. I’ve never seen anything like it at the Chaudanne: the area was thronged with hundreds of competitors and packed with dozens of marquees. Bikers careered madly in every direction, there were crowds of spectators and a rock band was playing remarkably loudly on an outdoor stage. The downhill and cross-country events finished in great speed at the bottom of the Stade piste, and at the same time Trial bikers leaped over tall obstacles specially set up around the Chaudanne. Méribel has never seen anything quite like it since the Olympics: let’s hope we can host this event every summer and really put ourselves on the mountain biking map.
This week it is the turn of golfers to celebrate a major (though a slightly less noisy) event, the Méribel Golf Show. This has attracted dozens of professional golfers to our beautiful course including several from the European tour. This year’s enlarged event sees a Pro-Am and the first Méribel Open, an alliance contest sponsored by Occitane. Over the past few days I have been a marshal on the course, watching top players at close range, and picking up some top tips from the pros. Click here for more details of Méribel’s wonderful mountain course.
Sadly, the last lifts close at the end of this week so the faithful hound and I will miss our regular walks down from the top of the Tougnète and Saulire. From now on if we want to enjoy beautiful mountain views from on high we will have to walk up. So I’m delighted to have discovered another way of enjoying the spectacular mountain scenery – flying in a light aircraft from Méribel’s Altiport. You can take short flights from Méribel’s airstrip in summer or winter - in winter the planes are equipped with skis. The highlight of my week was a flight over the 3 Valleys and around the Mont Blanc – a really spectacular way to view the Alps. And having flown over other ugly, high, modern ski resorts, flying back into our beautifully preserved, wooded valley make me appreciate just how beautiful Méribel really is.
If you would like to find out all that is new for the next winter season in Meribel, please click here.
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