charm : lodgings to bewitch winter again
| Where are you likely to run across the “original version” of impersonator Laurent Gerra? On skis, 2,083 metres up, at the summit of the Lanslebourg-Mont-Cenis ski runs, where he has been coming regularly for ten years – and where he is now a resident. |
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Chalet, rest house, B&B
Brighten your winter days curled up at the fireside |
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Chalet de Lavis-Trafford
a secluded mountain paradise |
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Laurent Gerra
"I come here for a little peace and quiet" |
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Laurent Gerra : "I come here for a little peace and quiet" |
On tour, he aims straight from the hip, demolishing his latest target – television – with one bull’s eye after another. On the radio (RTL, “Le grand juron”, in the 6 p.m. slot), he parodies the politicians of the day. In Maurienne, he’s another man, a mountain-lover, who is right at home with the locals. He’s on first name terms with the ski patrol, skiers and the 13th Battalion of Alpine Chasseurs, and he is a patron of the Grande Odyssée dogsled race and of the ecological challenge for the protection of the Dent-Parrachée glacier, the protective deity of this high valley region. “My grandfather taught me survival skills so I wouldn’t starve if I got lost in the forest,” the all-new and 100%-natural Gerra affirms. The grandparent in question was a native of the Maurienne and directed a brass band. “He was responsible for my first stage appearance.”
Gerra was named an “honorary citizen” of Lanslebourg in 2006, and he is a regular at the “Clé des Champs”, a Lanslevillard boutique hotel located directly opposite the ski runs. He recently purchased a chalet – a refuge light-years away from the ubiquitous “ski factories” and celebrity resorts, where, in his own words, “people just leave me alone”. But that doesn’t stop him from participating in local promotional events, winter and summer alike.
