Like Aspen with the Silver Queen Gondola in the center of town, getting up on the mountains above Megève is about as painless as can be. All of our visiting friends were staying at the Fermes de Marie hotel in town (for two decades, the creation of our friends the Sibuet family, who still run it impeccably), where they could walk (or be shuttled by the hotel’s Land Rovers) to the “Rochebrune Eggs,” which take you directly up to the trails. From the top of Rochebrune, one can access the pistes of that mountain as well as neighboring Cote 2000 (the highest ski mountain in Megève) or even take a cable car across to access the Mont d’Arbois ski area, which extends the acres of excellent terrain at your disposal. In contrast, while the ski areas of Aspen are easily accessed by bus or car, there is no cable car system connecting Ajax, Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass (a plan exists for interconnecting the mountains, but it’s shelved for now due to the high cost).
While the inviting comfort of the ski gondola was a European invention, recent years have seen the Americans in Aspen take the lead with new quad and six-seat express speed lifts. Megève is trying to catch up, and I did notice that a few of the older chairlifts have been replaced by newer, speedier models, but the two dreaded tire-fesses (literally “pulls you up by your behind”) that haunted me as a child have yet to be replaced.
The skiing on Megève’s three principal mountains is excellent, as is the case in Aspen. But unlike Aspen, where food is very much an afterthought, in Megève, lunch is probably the key determinant in where one chooses to ski that day. I should say that the exceptions in Aspen are the Mountain Club on Ajax where the food is mediocre at best but which tends to cause its members to ski Ajax religiously out of fear for visiting another mountain where they would have to wait in lines with the masses, as well as Cloud Nine up on Highlands, which is run by our inimitable friend Andreas Fischbacher, who truly does serve the closest thing to great European fare on a U.S. ski mountain, with plenty of charm and atmosphere to boot.
But in Megève, you have your pick of the real deal, what Andreas’ spot is modeled after. When on Mont d’Arbois, one eats at L’Idéal, which sadly is under new management and not as memorable as it once was but still offers a solid meal and excellent atmosphere. When on Cote 2000, the best place to eat is the namesake restaurant at the bottom, and, for me, was a charming and welcome respite from Saturday’s snowstorm. On the crest of the Alpette piste on Rochebrune rests the restaurant L’Alpette, now also run by the Sibuet family of Fermes de Marie fame (they have come to own many of the best run hotels and restaurants in Megève and elsewhere in France), where I enjoyed a wonderful lunch with friends on Sunday afternoon. The interior is rustic and charming, with a large fireplace in the bar area where walk-ins are welcome, as well as another fireplace that warms the main dining room where reservations are a must, even on the last weekend of the season. I learned this the hard way on Sunday when I forgot to reserve, was sidelined to the tourist section by the hostess, and was only saved by a childhood acquaintance and his bride, who invited us to join…thank you Axel! Yesterday, I cleared my plate of grilled beef and salad but still made room for the most delicious tarte aux myrtilles that I have had in years, accompanied by an equally satisfying dollop of homemade crème Chantilly. (As a French woman living in New York, this is the sort of thing you just cannot find in America, even in the best French restaurants.)
Après-ski in Megève is remarkably good. There are too many places to mention. For families or the less rowdy, there are superb creperies (Chez Maria, right at the base of the Rochebrune Eggs, is the most charming and still my favorite). For the boys looking to down a few pints, there are the old standbys of La Calèche or the Brasserie Centrale, both right in the middle of town. All of the hotels offer great après-ski with wonderful atmospheres. There is definitely a scene, and picking up someone is just as possible as in Aspen, but in Megève, it doesn’t feel as forced as the more “slick” après-ski bar scenes that one finds in America.
