Settling into Courchevel: a practical guide

The keys are yours, the boxes are down, and this is where everything begins. Settling into Courchevel is not just about setting your bags down at the foot of the slopes: the first week sets the tone for all those that follow. It is the moment when you switch the contracts over, open the right files, and learn the way to the bakery on your level and to the nearest lifts. Handled well, this week turns an address into a true home.

Here is a method for getting through these first days without forgetting anything, whether you are arriving from elsewhere in France or from abroad. The idea is not to do everything at once, but to put things in the right order, from the most urgent to the most pleasant.

Activating the contracts

A home does not come alive without its connections, and altitude makes heating all the more crucial. Before you even unpack, check that the essentials work and start the contracts in your name.

• Energy: open or transfer the electricity and gas contract, with a meter reading to support it, to avoid paying for the previous occupant’s consumption. In the mountains, heating weighs heavily: check how the home is heated.
• Water: in a high-altitude residence, water is often included in the co-ownership charges, which also cover snow clearing and services; elsewhere, it is covered by an individual subscription to be put in your name.
• Internet and telephone: this is often the longest lead time, sometimes longer still in a resort. Place the order on the very first day, as a connection appointment can take one to two weeks.

For each contract, note the provider, the customer reference and the renewal date. This short summary will serve you for a long time.

Opening the right administrative files

Some formalities are a precondition for all the others. It is better to start them early, as they take time and often call for one another.

• French tax number: indispensable for many formalities, it is obtained from the tax authorities, online or at the public finance centre serving the valley.
• French bank account: a recent proof of address (an energy bill, an insurance certificate) is almost always required. Hence the value of having started the contracts first.
• Home insurance: it is mandatory and is taken out before or as soon as you move in. Keep the certificate, as the co-ownership will ask for it and so will other formalities.

For a new resident arriving from abroad, the challenge is often less the complexity than the language and the right person to speak to. Courchevel is well practised at welcoming an international clientele, but having the key letters translated and identifying the right counter on the first try saves weeks.

Getting to know your level

A level is discovered on foot, in the first days, when the eye is still fresh. Courchevel is lived as much between slopes and lifts as along its shops. Take the time to map the essentials around your home.

• Everyday shops: bakery, grocer, ski hire, dry cleaner, post point.
• Health: the nearest pharmacy, a doctor and practice who accept new patients, keeping mountain medicine in mind.
• Access and slopes: the nearest lifts, ski-in ski-out access from your home, and the real travel time to the other levels or to Moutiers.
• Parking: note the parking spaces, the road access conditions and the snow-clearing constraints in high season.

The character changes a great deal from one level to another: the buzz and prestige of 1850, the family rhythm of 1650 and 1550, the village atmosphere of Le Praz. To place each atmosphere even before you set down your boxes, our overview of where to buy in Courchevel offers useful markers.

Building your address book

Beyond the shops, it is a network of good contacts that makes life in a resort run smoothly. Start building it from this first week, noting things down as you go.

• The building caretaker or the managing agent, your first point of contact in case of trouble, especially valuable in a high-altitude co-ownership.
• A heating engineer, a plumber and an electrician you can trust, to keep on hand, as frost does not wait.
• A doctor, a dentist, and possibly someone who speaks your language.
• The tradespeople and services found through recommendation, always safer than the first name found online.

This book, kept up to date, will quickly become one of your most precious possessions.

Receiving deliveries and setting up

The first week is also the week of deliveries: furniture, appliances, boxes sent ahead. Each slot requires someone present on site, within a time window that is rarely precise, and access is not always easy on high-altitude roads or in high season.

Anticipate the order of arrivals, keep the manuals and the delivery notes, and check each parcel on receipt rather than after the delivery person has left. For assembling furniture or installing appliances, it is better to have the right tools ready and, if needed, occasional help that waits during the slot and checks the work.

Feeling at home

Once the urgent matters are settled, it is the details that make the difference. A few touches are enough to turn a functional home into a place you look forward to coming back to after a day on the slopes.

• Heat the home, air the rooms, do a first clean, put the linens in place.
• Fill the fridge with the first shopping from your level.
• Arrange a few touches, find a café and a table where you will soon feel like a regular between two runs.

These simple gestures anchor the feeling of having truly arrived. And in Courchevel, the mountain soon invites you to live to the rhythm of the seasons, skis on from the morning.

Getting support

All of this can be done on your own, provided you have the time, the language and a few local bearings. When one of those three is missing, a dedicated concierge changes the first week entirely: a single point of contact, present on the ground, who coordinates the contracts, points you to the right counters, supports the translations, waits for the deliveries and builds the resort address book with you. If your move comes with a purchase, French Realty also points you towards a partner property finder holding the carte T and a partner notaire; you will find a first overview on the buying property in Courchevel page and in our guides for non-residents.

At French Realty, this move-in support is billed by time spent, in prepaid hours, with no subscription. We bill our time for support and coordination; official fees and charges remain your responsibility, at their actual cost. You decide when to call on us, and you receive a report at each step. The first week then stops being a race and becomes what it should be: the start of a life in Courchevel.