Comedy and cheese in the Portes Du Soleil

By Skier & Snowboarder on 13th September 2024

PHOTO: © L. Meyer

Petra Shepherd gets her funny bones tickled on a trip to Les Gets with apres-ski laughs at the Montreux Comedy Festival.

As apres-ski activities go, the Alpine version of the Montreux Comedy Festival makes a change from the usual one-too-many drinks with friends.

I was in Les Gets to have my funny bones tickled, exercising my laughter muscles after a long day exercising my other muscles on the slopes.

Les Gets has always been ahead of the game when it comes to diversifying its offer for tourists. Following the success of its first edition in 2023, the Montreux Comedy Festival set up shop again in January in the Portes Du Soleil resort for a wild week filled with fun and laugher.

Produced jointly with the famous Montreux Comedy Festival, a recognised source of comic talent for over three decades, this alpine version of the festival Montreux Comedy Fait Du Ski or Montreux Comedy goes Skiing is a unique experience where comedy and skiing meet. From the absurd to satire there was something to get everyone laughing, helped in part by free mulled wine offered at the start.

Flying the comedy flag for the UK, award-winning comedian Phil Wang had the audience in stitches as he described how he had spent £600 on clothes he’ll never wear again (it was his first and possibly last time skiing) and mischievous, extremely funny host Maisie Adam (familiar to many from Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You with her unique feather cut hairstyle) mercilessly ribbed members of the audience but in such a charming way that everyone left with a smile of their face, ready to hit the slopes the next day in good spirits. The comedy festival is set to be an annual event.

Chalet Hotel Blythe

Another altogether different après ski activity is Alta Lumina. As night falls, deep in the forest you follow a one-kilometre trail, illuminated with a series of images. It’s a magical experience that plunges visitors into a fantasy world for a unique, immersive adventure. The unguided tour lasts between 50 minutes and one hour.

Les Gets is part of the world-class Portes du Soleil ski area comprising 12 resorts in France and Switzerland. It’s an attractive, sunny village of traditional chalet-style buildings with Chalet Hotel Blythe, an uber luxury catered chalet (my home for two nights) being the latest offering. Ideally located close to the ski slopes and village centre, boasting eight spacious double or twin bedrooms, all thoughtfully designed with en-suite bathrooms (or in one case a copper bath within the room itself) and fitted with luxury amenities.

Featured in The Sunday Times as one of the best 15 new places to stay in the Alps that winter, I was expecting great things and wasn’t disappointed. It was wow after wow from the moment we arrived. Chalet Hotel Blythe is a collaboration of some of the finest construction, architectural and design talent, all from the Les Gets/Morzine area, think floor to ceiling windows, modern light fixtures, a monster of a dining table and somewhat bizarrely leather armchairs that come complete with stirrups. Their Head Chef Peter Webster has over a decade’s experience working in Michelin-starred restaurants, hotels and country houses in the UK and there’s a complimentary ski butler service, providing assistance in arranging lift passes, ski pass bookings, beauty treatments and massages, slopeside picnics, ski lessons and more.

The previous winter, Les Gets reduced its plastic consumption by proposing a range of lift passes made from beechwood and was also the first resort in Europe to ban smoking on the slopes. There’s plenty the resort is getting right; we were even blessed with a most impressive sun halo.

Les Portes du Soleil is one of the largest ski areas in Europe with 12 connected resorts; 8 French and 4 Swiss (306 pistes and nearly 195 lifts). It’s great for keen intermediates skiers who like the ability to clock up the ski miles and ski from A to B, ticking off various resorts. I started my trip in Chatel directly connected with the resorts on the French side: Avoriaz, Morzine, Les Gets, Saint Jean d’Aulps, Montriand, Abondance and La Chapelle d’Abondance and the Swiss side Morgins, Torgon, Champous-sin-les-Crosets and Champery with the idea to ski over to Les Gets (our luggage following by taxi).

Sadly, the weather conditions meant this was impossible, but nevertheless Chatel still had more than enough skiing to spend a couple of days exploring some dramatically different terrain without ever skiing the same piste twice. Also, if the weather isn’t playing ball, there’s always alcohol to improve the mood, beer with genepi – a frothy green concoction that looked as though fairy liquid had been added to a pint – was a first and surprisingly tasty.

PHOTO: © L. Meyer

For a spine-tingling thrill, The Fantasticable is a giant 1,200m-long zip wire at the top of the Rochassons chairlift. Take off your ski equipment, strap in and ‘fly’ over the village of Plaine-Dranse, 140 metres up in the air at speeds approaching 100km/h. At the finish your ski equipment is returned to you (it arrives there the same way you do, in a special bag). As if skiing didn’t have enough thrills of its own! It’s something else I’ll have to return to Chatel for.

I was skiing on slopes where Abondance cows graze the alpine meadows during the summer, Abondance cheese (AOP) which the farmers make is very versatile, one delicious dish made from the cheese is Berthoud eaten with local charcuterie, potatoes and green salad. With 30 active farms in Chatel, a dozen of which make Abondance (AOP) Cheese, it’s also possible to visit a farm, see, sample and buy the cheese – and a big thank you to Emmanuel and Corinne David at Gaec Barbossine for introducing me to the delicious flavours of this savoie cheese and for the extremely generous slice I took home with me. When it comes to cheese, a winter without a cheese fondu is a miserable one and La Poya in the heart of Chatel village does a particularly good and generous one.

PHOTO: Corentin Croisonnier

Sometimes the weather can be your best friend or worst enemy but both Chatel and Les Gets are mindful of the unpredictable weather with a plethora of activities both on and off the snow, Montreux Comedy Fait du Ski is set to be a laugh-out-loud annual event whilst Rock the Pistes is already a firm favourite. The Portes du Soleil ski area welcomes big-name international and Franco-Swiss rock and pop performers to ephemeral concert stages across the Portes du Soleil. The concerts are scheduled in the early afternoon to ensure skiers can return home on the lift network, with the concert in Chatel taking place at Plaine Dranse. When the sun and snow gods align as they did for the latter part of my visit to Les Gets, the region more than lives up to its international reputation.

TRAVEL FACTS

Petra Shepherd flew to Geneva from London Heathrow with Swiss.

Chatel & Les Gets are approximately one and half hours’ drive from Geneva Airport. There are numerous transfer companies from £60 per person one way.