Montgenèvre, dean of Stations
The history of Montgenèvre
The Montgenèvre resort was born one day in 1907. One hundred years of social events, sporting events, one hundred years of complicity, of stories, one hundred years of evolution which will be celebrated with dignity this year.
How can we imagine, today, when discovering the village, the snow front, the half-pipe, the ballet of the porters, the colorful spectacle of the skiers, that Montgenèvre is celebrating its one hundred and thirteenth anniversary this year?
A respectable age that the old lady wears without complexes.
Carried by the dynamics of the Olympic Games, in 2006 she gave herself a second youth. And can remember, with emotion but without nostalgia, the old times when the chic Parisian circles came to show off on its terraces.
It was in 1895 that skiing appeared for the first time in the village: two Norwegian officers performed a skiing demonstration there and introduced French soldiers to this practice.
In 1903, the Minister of War created the first ski school in Briançon. More than 5,000 military skiers were trained there until 1914. The regiment contributed to spreading the practice of skiing among mountain populations by giving away free pairs of skis to villagers in the high valleys.
Many soldiers will also become volunteer instructors. At that time, a stick was used for balance.
To stop, we simply let ourselves fall, an empirical technique which will remain under the name of Briançonnais stop. The skiing epic is launched in the region.
The birth of the resort is marked by the organization of the first international competition in the village.
From February 9 to 13, 1907, under the leadership of the French Alpine Club (CAF), the Touring Club of France and the army, the resort hosted its first ski jumping competition. Some 3,000 spectators, including several official delegations from Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Norway, invaded the resort to applaud the champions.
The Norwegian Durban Hansen will win the jumping competition by clearing more than 26 meters. Montgenèvre becomes the first French resort worthy of the name. The period between the wars saw an elite parade through the station where rentiers and aristocrats mixed with the idle bourgeoisie.
The installation of a ski lift at Prarial in 1936 accelerated the phenomenon and the practice of skiing gradually became a real social phenomenon.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Montgenèvre was the unmissable meeting place for the Parisian jet set. The owner of the Boeuf sur le Toit, a famous Parisian cabaret, Mr. Moyses took charge of the Grand Hôtel and brought with him a host of famous artists and writers. During this blessed era, we met Cocteau, Gabin, Colette, Paul Émile Victor and other Mistinguetts in the station…
