The best-known name in French skiing, and the gateway to the largest ski area on earth.
A note for American skiers: France grades pistes on a four-color scale rather than the three most US resorts use. Green and blue are beginner and easy, much like at home. A red run sits between an American blue and black, more demanding than an easy intermediate but short of a true black diamond. Black runs are the hardest on the mountain, comparable to an American black or double-black diamond.
Courchevel is really five villages at different altitudes, 1850, 1650, 1550, 1300 (La Tania), and Le Praz, each with its own character and price point, all connected by the same lift network into Les Trois Vallées: 600 kilometers of linked piste across 334 marked runs and 161 lifts, shared with Méribel and Val Thorens, the largest connected ski area in the world. Courchevel's own sector holds roughly 150 kilometers of that terrain across some 55 lifts, and the Saulire cable car climbs to nearly 2,700 meters for a panorama across all three valleys at once.
1850 is the one people picture: Michelin stars, boutiques, valet parking. La Tania, lower down and quieter, is where the same ski area feels less like a stage set.
Chalet Ivory is in La Tania: ski-in, ski-out, ten minutes from the lift base, without the price tag or the see-and-be-seen atmosphere of the upper villages, while still putting the entire Trois Vallées within reach on skis.
