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Courmayeur, Mont Blanc, Italy
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Courmayeur, on
the Italian side of the Monte Bianco,
or Mont Blanc if you prefer, is a resort that has grown in
popularity with skiers from all over the globe.
It is indeed a truly international entity with more languages being spoken here than at the U.N. This, in this writer's humble opinion is one of the reasons for its incredible popularity. People like to mix and mingle, and they like to try to communicate in different languages. It's like you have to be popular with different nationalities to get more popular with different nationalities. Somewhat of a reverse "catch 22" situation.
On weekends, and during peak holiday seasons,
Courmayeur takes on a distinctly Italian persona. During those select
periods, the narrow streets of this grand old village are alive with fur
coats, grand fashion, and the Italian greeting "Ciao Bella". All of this
is made more noticeable; because Courmayeur, located as it is snuggled
right up to and separated from France only by Mont Blanc, does not
normally , at least among its indigenous folk, boast a typical Italian
persona. Valdostana, we believe is a more accurate term.
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A Valdostana is a person, who, although 100%
Italian, was born in the Aosta Valley, and, as such, is multi lingual in
that he or she speaks fluent French, Italian, the local Patois and more
often than not, excellent English too. So high fashion, high falultin'
Milanese (Italians from Milan) they are not. Good, warm, honest, salt-of-the-earth
mountain people they are.
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OK, that takes care of the personality picture
at least some of the time. The rest of the time, especially during the ski
season, this resort is almost completely given over to those who account
for a large part of its prosperity, visiting skiers.
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English in various accents is the language of
choice here. Courmayeur has always had a very strong following amongst
skiers from The British Isles, and of late, partially driven by the
exchange rate between the dollar and the Lira, English with a North
American accent is prominent too. Naturally, English is not the only
language spoken by Courmayeur's visitors. This resort is tremendously
popular with the Scandinavian countries and the rest of Europe is well
represented too.
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So why are you not familiar with it, if you
live in, say, Meridian, Mississippi? Simple, Euro Ski was not too
available in that city before electronic publishing, and, no matter how
professional and dedicated your local publicity machine, it is simply not
possible using conventional information distribution methods to reach
every corner of the earth. Well brother, that was then and this is now,
and no matter where you are, we will reach out and bring you information
about this stunning Italian resort. It's well worth knowing about.
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