Schuss by Day, Dance by Night in the French Alps

This medieval mountain village, a traditional winter playground for the wealthy of Europe, has a slightly different look these days. There’s been an influx of oil-rich Arab businessmen who have come from Geneva, 45 miles away, in their shiny new Rolls-Royces.

At places like the popular late-night club Les Cinq Rues where five streets intersect, little has changed since before World War II except for the music and the crowd. Now the disco beat stirs up a diverse collection of dancers each night at the old apres -ski haunt in this 13th-Century hamlet.

The disco is within walking distance of the landmark village church, where horse-drawn sleighs still gather (cars are forbidden on the streets) to take vacationers bundled in furs to their lodgings.

Sequined Ski Suits

The Aallard boutique, a longtime haute couture shop, is still on the corner next to the church. The salespeople continue to deal haughtily with the aristocracy, but now the ski suits on display are decorated with sequins and rhinestones.

Arabs, outfitted in many of those expensive suits, are now learning the sport on the same slopes where the titled of Europe learned to ski in the 1930s.

Even Arab women are learning to ski. They hire ski instructors for private lessons and almost always arrive accompanied by a bodyguard or chaperon--never alone.

Slopes around Megeve have expanded to 42 lifts. They are exhibiting 21st-Century technology with two aerial trams, four gondolas, eight chairlifts and 28 surface lifts (pomas and T-bars).

The vertical drop is 4,250 feet. Higher and steeper slopes are de rigueur for the skiers of Megeve. You’d better be prepared to ski the packed as well as the powder.

Old customs clash with modern technology in this cosmopolitan French resort. Your lift ticket is read by a computer scan instead of being punched by a ski area employee. You simply run the lift ticket through a slot and a turnstile lets you into the lift.

It is all very fast and more efficient than the hand-held punch used in the United States.

Fast Ski Lifts

Magnetic bars on the lift ticket--like the bar codes on groceries in the United States--tell the date and the type of ski ticket issued.

A four-day ski pass at Mont Blanc costs about $80 U.S. In addition to Megeve’s lifts, it gives skiers access to lifts in more than 10 surrounding resorts, including Chamonix and St. Gervais less than an hour’s drive away. A Mont Blanc ski pass for six consecutive days costs about $110.

One day the spire of the old village church sticking out of the fog that sometimes envelopes the village guided me down the mountainside, past large-balconied chalets being built with huge garages to house the expensive cars of Megeve’s skiers. The run ended right in the backyard of the church.

As I roamed the village, Old World elegance was still evident. In the narrow alleys are many antique stores and wickedly inviting pastry shops.

At the Palis de Sports, a ballet was scheduled. Half of the arena is an art exhibit of Samivel paintings.

Plenty of Art

Samivel is the contemporary French artist whose scenes of the Haute Savoie and the Alps have been in book illustrations, on post cards and the subject of paintings. He is little known in the United States, except to skiers who frequent the Alps around Mont Blanc.

On plateau Mont d’Arbois, where Baron Maurice de Rothschild dedicated a hotel in 1921, the quiet elegance of yesteryear continues.

There, near the base of the lifts, is the Ferme Hotel Adrien Duvillard. In a converted farmhouse that belonged to the Duvillard family for three centuries, Adrien and his wife, Eva, have created a delightful hotel of French country charm.

Duvillard was a member of the French national ski team for 10 years, and Mme. Duvillard was on the Austrian tennis team before they married. Good wine and charming cosmopolitan hosts make a dinner there memorable.

One night Mme. Duvillard rushed in between the third and fourth courses of a large dinner party to show the first reservation from outside France for a room at her hotel in the winter of 1992.

Site of Winter Olympics

That is when the Winter Olympics will be held in France’s Haute Savoie region. A couple in the United States had spent their honeymoon at Duvillard’s hotel and wanted to reserve early to return when the world comes to the French Alps for the XVI Winter Olympic Games.

The French Olympics will be scattered at venues throughout the region in one of the densest networks of ski lifts in the world--900 lifts from trams to T-bars.

Although Megeve is not an Olympic venue it is only 45 minutes by road from Albertville, where the opening and closing ceremonies and the ice-skating events are scheduled. It is expected to house some of the more Parisian-bent of the Olympic visitors.

For four-star lodging, try the Hotel Mont Blanc near the village center. You can watch the Parisian eccentrics in the bar Les Enfants Terribles, which has Jean Cocteau paintings on the walls (although the original painting by Cocteau of Les Enfants Terribles was destroyed by a fire).

Lunch on Terraces

Above the village there’s the Chalet du Mont d’Arbois. Rooms at both the Hotel Mont Blanc and the Chalet cost from about $175 to $200 double a night.

On the slopes, skiers spend two-hour lunches on sunlit terraces, a European tradition.

At L’Alpette, an on-slope restaurant, red chairs and tables set outside contrast with the fields of endless white snow. From there the views of massive Mont Blanc, the spire of the Aiguille de Midi and the jagged Giant’s Tooth cry for an artist’s brush or at least a photograph.

Waitresses scurry to bring wine or, better yet, pitchers of lemonade mixed with beer, which tastes wonderful when dry-air thirsty. On another day at a mountain refuge, soupe savoyarde (with croutons and cheese) costs about $3.50. Vin Choud in a hand-decorated bottle was about $2.

Walk to Hotels

No one ever skis to town until 4 or 5 p.m. Shortly after, tiny lights go on to outline enchantingly the buildings in the village center.

Some three-star hotels at $60 to $70 U.S. are Le Fer a Cheval, within walking distance of the center of town, and Au Coin de Feu, a romantic sleigh ride away.

At Le Fer a Cheval the innkeeper still turns down beds and closes the shutters at night. And breakfast arrives in hand-painted china with homemade jams. The walls display antiques. My bedroom had a dresser dated 1785.

For French country charm, Hotel Duvillard (about $70 to $90 U.S. a night with demi-pension) has 19 rooms. Hotel Mt. Joly (about $70 a night with demi-pension) has 25 rooms.

Megeve has more than 60 restaurants, with 28 on the ski slopes.

Rich Pastries Abound

Chez Maria is a creperie at the bottom of the telecabine du Chamois. Le Bar du Chamois is good for fondue Savoyarde. For after skiing, the Patisserie du Mt. Joly is a tea room with delightful pastries.

La Sapinniere is a noon-to-10 p.m. brasserie in the center of town. Chalet l’Alpette, way up on the Massif de Rochebreine, serves a “must try” dessert of fresh pears covered with chocolate.

From Paris a daily high-speed train goes to Geneva via Bellegarde. A special bus links with the train to Megeve.

For more information, contact the French Government Tourist Office, 9401 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 840, Beverly Hills 90212, (213) 271-6665.