Have you ever been to Méribel Ski Resort?

Have you ever heard about Meribel? If you like skiing I’m sure you have. It’s a popular ski resort in the French Alps, in the Savoie department. But it also hosted some of the events of the 1992 Winter Olympics of Albertville.

As you can immagine, this resort has everything to make ski lovers happy.

Its name refers to 3 different villages called Méribel Centre, Méribel-Mottaret and Méribel Village.

The Ski Resort

Meribel is part of the Les Trois Vallées ski area.
Les Trois Vallées means ‘the Three Valleys’ but actually it comprises 4 ski resorts – Courchevel, Méribel, Les Menuires and Val Thorens.

This network consist of more than 100 lifts and over 700 kilometers of ski runs for alpine skiing and cross-country skiing.

Nature and architecture

One of the strong points of this ski resort is its location within the Vanoise National Park, one of the most stunning part of the French Alps.

The lower area is characterized by enchanting coniferous forests, while the higher one has no vegetation. That’s where you can enjoy the stunning rocky peaks of the Alps. Consider that the highest point reached by a ski lift is Mont Vallon (2,952 m).

In addition to the ski runs, the villages welcome their visitors with the typical mountain atmosphere. Wooden chalets, flowered balconies and local architectural details are exactly what you expect.

About the origins of Méribel

The history of this ski resort is quite peculiar. In fact, this ski resort isn’t the evolution of a pre-existing village, which residents might have seen a tourist potential.

Méribel ski resort was founded by a Scotsman named Peter Lindsay. Lindsay was looking for a new winter sports destination, somewhere away from the ski resorts of Austria and Germany where the Nazi regime was gaining  power. He found Meribel in France and placed the first ski lift above Les Allues in 1938.