POSTCARDS FROM MEGEVE: COW CONTEST

18 Oct POSTCARDS FROM MEGEVE: COW CONTEST

There’s something new in Megéve everyday. Today, it was a cow contest. Farmers came from all over, bringing their best cows, hoping to to win the bragging rights of having the most beautiful cow in the countryside. Like a dog show, the cows were tethered in long lines and brought out three at a time into the arena to be walked and displayed on the podium.

The contest lasted all day as did a local farmers market.  There were cheese stalls, candy stalls, clothing stalls, toy stalls, selling all kinds of stuff. I bought a fat chocolate crepe. Additionally, there was a guessing contest for the weight of a cow, and I guessed 688 kilograms. This was the weight exactly! My prize was a cow bell, the kind the cows wear so they can be heard and found if they wander off. The bell is as big as a backpack! I have no idea what to do with it, but it was fun to win it and have another glorious day in Megéve.

Editor’s Note: Last January, Telluride Inside… and Out visited Megeve, located in the Haute-Savoie department, Rhone-Alpes region, southeastern France. The town started its development as a ski resort in the 1910s, when the Rothschild family began spending winter vacations in the region after becoming oh so over  the Swiss resort of St Moritz. Modern-day Megeve is considered among the most beautiful upmarket ski resorts in France, indeed, in the world. And with good reason. Even more than Telluride, Megeve offers extensive downhill options for all levels of skiers and boarders: 111 lifts, 219 slopes, totaling 445 km. The region has no huge hotels, and for the most part, there are no mass market boils on its face. (However – eegads –  when we were there, we spied a MacDonald’s at one end of town.) The core of Megeve is a charming medieval village with narrow cobbled streets, but the wake up call signaling you are in the here and now are the numerous high-end designer boutiques flashing brand names like Prada and Hermes. Over the years, Telski, Town of Telluride and Mountain Village honchos have talked about the possibility of an alliance with Megeve in the form of a “sister city” relationship. So far, no dice. But an ambassador went to Megeve anyway,  thanks to two ski coaches, local Caleb Martin and his friend, Richard Gay (in Megeve). The pair decided an exchange would be a great idea, so  Zach Nunn is now staying with Clement Cabrol’s family – Alain, Cathy, Camille,  and Nicholas –  before Clement travels to town to ski moguls with the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club. Clement will be staying with the (remaining) Nunns: Randall, Debra, and Skyler. Zach plans to spend a year in Megeve and is posting regularly.