Twinning Meribel
We would expect very little argument if we said that Meribel is the most British friendly ski resort in France and as such is incredibly popular with skiers coming from the UK. Meribel was one of the first resorts to really understand the value of the British tourist and have since been courting our custom. It hosts numerous UK chalet companies as well as having a good section of British run pubs and restaurants, you can even get a full English breakfast. Meribel is also home to several UK ski competitions and even boasts some all year round expats. Despite all this Britishness it retains the charms of a classic French ski resort.
You could even say that Meribel is the ultimate destination for Anglo-French harmony and as such should have the words ‘twinned
with’ on its sign. And that is what we plan to do. We feel that Meribel should have a British sibling and will be trying to get the resort of Meribel twinned with a town in the UK. The problem is we don’t know which one? We don’t know if it is even possible. But we are going to try.
So first things first, we need to choose a town to twin Meribel with. For this we want your help to decide on a town. We want you to nominate a town, it could be where you live, or one that you think is similar to Meribel. We will then compile a short list and then have a public vote on who we should try and get Meribel twinned with.
We don’t think that there are any French ski resorts twinned with a UK town yet, however, Grenoble is twinned with Oxford and Annecy is twinned with Cheltenham, so we have some alpine links already.
To help you start thinking about where you think would be a great place to twin Meribel with, here are a few facts about the resorts.
- Meribel hosted Ice Hockey and Womens Alpine events during the 1992 Albertville Olympics.
- It has its own airport.
- Meribel is at 1400 meters above sea level.
- Perminant population is estimated at 2000.
- Located near the Vanoise national park.
- Meribel was founded by a Scottish man called Colone Peter Lindsay.
We would like to start the ball rolling with a couple of suggestions.
Our first is naturally Alpine Actions UK home, Shorham-by-Sea. To start with it’s linked by the very fact that we send over 2000 people to the resorts every year from our office based in the Adur Business Center. Our population is around 18,000 which is almost the same as Meribel in the winter when populated with tourists. If they all went on one week we would double the permanent population. We also have a small airport, just like Meribel.
Our second is the Village of Croyde in North Devon, as it is a mirror image of Meribel. It is one of the UK’s most popular surfing destination, giving it that extreme sport link. It also has a small permanent population that swells during the in season time. Like Meribel it sits in the middle of three other similar destinations, these are the beaches of Saunton and Woolacombe. Croyde also has lively night life and has a big reputation for fun.
Nominations for where we should try and get Meribel twinned with must be suggested before the 1st June. You can let us know your ideas and reasons in the comments below, via our Facebook page, or you can tweet us @Alpineactionski or use the hashtag #TwinMeribel.
Morpeth, Northumberland is my nomination. Thriving market town with a lively night life ( similar to Meribel) Oh can it get snow too – very close to The Cheviot Hills – beautiful landscapes.
Blubberhouses. Blubberhouses is a small village and civil parish located in the Washburn Valley in the borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, a county in the north of England. It is situated to the south of the Yorkshire Dales national park, and to the north of a Roman road and Fewston Reservoir.