Amazing the things that are tucked back into my feeble brain. As I work on my autobiography, more and more of them surface.
The ‘60s were really roaring for ski development in France. Every time I went to Courchavel I hardly recognized the town, so much had changed. Janeau Tourneau and his brother had opened a bar called the Farm Yard. Behind the bar, instead of the usual display of all kinds of bottles of booze, there was a very large plate glass window. Behind that was a farmyard scene full of live animals – a couple of cows, a mule, pigs and chickens. They were in a closed room and whenever the bar was closed it was dark in the farmyard and the animals slept.
One evening a French TV crew was filming the Farm Yard and I saw an Arriflex camera for the first time. I coveted that camera for years, but at over $3,000, it was way out of my budget.
One winter I was producing a half-hour television film for Look Nevada ski bindings featuring Leo LaCroix. I had gotten to know him quite well when he skied with Jean-Claude Killy in the infamous 13-week television series right after Killy won three Olympic gold medals.
In 1966 Leo had stood in the starting gate in the World Championships in Portillo Chile on a pair of skis he and his brother had made in their own garage. Leo finished second in the downhill on those skis. I was always so impressed by him.
We climbed into a Pilatus Porter aircraft at the Courchevel airport half way up the hill above the hotel and flew to Les Menuires, which at that time was being touted as part of the Three Valleys. When we flew over the ridge separating the two ski resorts I was surprised to see a lot of high-rise buildings and no people. Almost all of the condominiums had been sold and, unlike in America, the French ones came without sinks, toilets or cabinets. Leo told us, “That’s the way we do it here in the Three Valleys.”
I was really amazed to see these buildings and not another living person in sight. The road up to the village had not been completed for winter travel on purpose. That way they could contour all of the ski runs and check the snow every day in order to build avalanche fences and the many ski lifts in exactly the right places. As Leo again said, “It is the French method and we like it. We will build the roads when we are sure of the ski run.”
When Les Menuires became operational you could ski 14 airline miles from one end of the three valleys to the other.
The Farm Yard Bar and the animals were right down the street from a hotel called Bachelors Only. The owner had a simple marketing strategy that really worked. When you checked into the hotel the owner had you stand on a set of scales that he had gotten from an airport somewhere. He wrote down your weight on your registration card and pointed to electric lights above each place there was a room key.
He went on to say, “Each bed is mounted on a set of scales and if the weight on your bed gets over what your registered weight is, that light where your room key hangs will go on and I will know that you have a guest in your room. When the light goes on I automatically call the police because you are cheating me.”
During the grand opening week of his hotel he paid the local Gendarmerie (cop) the equivalent of $25 American to arrest a guest and a woman of the night for double occupancy in one of his single rooms. The story and photographs of the arrest appeared in newspapers all over the world. He has been almost sold out ever since the article appeared.
A friend recently returned from a ski vacation in Courchavel and I was amazed when he said he had to pay over $1,000 a night for a hotel room. The times are changing everywhere. But you don’t have to go to France and pay that much for great skiing. How lucky we are all over America to have had so many smart people have the foresight to build our great ski areas.