Bound by snow and spirit: The story of Park City and Courchevel

Photo: Piotr Figlarz

High in the snow-globe splendor of vast mountain ranges, Park City and the alpine elegance of Courchevel, France, may sit 5,000 miles and an ocean apart, yet the two mountain towns share a kindred spirit stitched together by powder days, cultural exchange, and a deep love for life lived outdoors. And yet, their sister-city relationship is more than a ceremonial title—it is a celebration of community, hospitality, artistry, and the enduring magic found in places where mountain peaks shape both landscape and identity. From torchlit ski runs and bustling main streets to shared traditions of adventure and refinement, the connection between Park City and Courchevel feels less like a partnership and more like a friendship written at altitude.

Since 1984, long before either town presented itself on the world stage as a Winter Olympic venue, Park City and Courchevel became acquainted, then deeply bonded, through a mutual collaboration among community leaders, government officials, and the diverse people they serve. The relationship resulted in joint “Sister Associations,” under the global umbrella of Sister Cities International, rooted and launched through President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1954 goal to advance global peace through citizen diplomacy.

Tina Quayle, with her cheeky energy and bright blue eyes, might as well be wearing a beret and armed with a creamy Brie. Spending her childhood years in a small village south of Paris, where her father served in the United States Air Force, Tina fell in love with French culture and became proficient in the language early on. Moving to Park City in 1980, initially for its proximity to the Salt Lake City Airport, she briefly left to work for Air France as a ski guide in Chamonix, but returned to call Park City home and has remained ever since. 

Following an illustrious marketing career—which included Jan’s Mountain Outfitters and years with the Badami family of Park City Ski Area fame—in the 1990s, she turned her sights to the nonprofit sector, where she had stints with Doug and Lynn Seus’ Vital Ground Foundation, served as executive director at Swaner Nature Preserve, and, quite by accident, was a driving force behind the development of KPCW’s home on Swede Alley as its general manager. “When Blaire Feulner was getting ready to retire, he called me up and said, ‘I want you to take the job; you’re the best fundraiser in town.’ I hadn’t accepted the job or told anybody, and he asked me to show up at Rotary, where he announced, ‘Tina is taking over for me.’ But that was Blaire; he was just off the charts,” she laughs. 

Tina shares the story of how the relationship between Park City and Courchevel came to be. “In 1984, then-mayor of Courchevel, Michèl Ziegler, was shopping America’s West, because the French love the West—they are enamored with cowboys, with ranching, with all-things Native American,” she muses. “He fell in love with Park City because both towns aspired to become Olympic venues; they were fighting for the ’92 Games, and Park City was just starting to talk about 2002. So, he met with Park City Mayor John Green, and it was all on from there.” The “sister” cities formalized their bond with an official resolution dated January 5, 1984, furthering their commitment to one another through programming, which has continued to evolve over 42 years.

The mission behind the commitment is multifaceted, founded in a desire to foster cultural, educational, and economic exchanges between the towns, both of whom share an alpine heritage; offer hundreds of acres of renowned ski terrain across multiple resorts; have earned their Olympic status; and cater to an ultra-rich tourism audience while navigating a comparatively small, but fiercely committed, full-time resident base. 

For 26 years, students of Courchevel and Park City have participated every two years in a winter/summer exchange program, with up to 25 Park City French learners traveling to France in the winter for 10 days and collaboratively hosting their French student counterparts during Park City’s summer season. Park City students, the majority of whom have been through Park City’s DLI (Dual Language Immersion) program and are fluent in the language, live with a French host family, re-create together, and immerse themselves in the lives of their French host families. Collaboratively, the Park City Sister Association plans 10 days of activities for French students during their summer visit, which lean heavily toward, of course, Western culture—rodeos, hayrides, small-town concerts, river floats, and a day on Main Street. But immersion can sometimes come with a downside, Tina says. “Sometimes they love each other, sometimes they hate each other and everything in between, and it doesn’t matter. We don’t expect you to be besties; it’s about cultural immersion.”

As the program has grown, several students have discovered opportunities that could be described as a little “extra.” For the past 14 years, up to four students each year have participated in an extended exchange program, spending three months shadowing students in their classes while gaining deeper, more immersive experiences in both communities. Tina is a huge fan of this programming. “It’s been life-changing for some kids. We’ve had some who have changed their majors, some wanting to go into government and diplomacy.” She shares one particularly heartwarming story: “The first gal we sent over was a bit of a guinea pig, because we didn’t know how it would work,” she laughs. “She was shy, a bit of a recluse, and not confident. A few months later, her dad and I went there, and in sweeps this girl, with a scarf thrown over her shoulder, walking tall, and she owned the meeting! She was gorgeous, confident, and her dad was crying over the difference. She was large and in charge,” she recalls.

In 2015, Josephine Hansen was a senior at Park City High School (PCHS), carrying more than a decade of French-language studies that began years earlier at Jeremy Ranch Elementary School. What started as vocabulary lessons and classroom conversations soon became the first step toward a much larger dream. Through the exchange program with Courchevel, Josephine found herself working at a two-star Michelin Restaurant immersed in the rhythms of French culinary life. For 10 weeks, she worked side by side with seasoned chefs, learning every station in the kitchen—from delicate pastries and Garde Manger to the precise preparation of meat and fish. The experience sharpened not only her technical skills, but also her confidence and vision for what her future could become.

After graduating from PCHS and earning her degree from the Culinary Institute of America, Josephine returned to Park City to continue building the career that first took shape in the French Alps. She would go on to serve as Chef de Cuisine at Tupelo and later at La Stellina inside the St. Regis Deer Valley. Looking back, she remembers the experience in Courchevel as the moment certain doors opened—opportunities that may have otherwise remained out of reach. “I could add my experience of working in a Michelin restaurant on my early résumé, which made all the difference. It was life-changing.”  

In 2018, the sister towns launched a second program, involving a municipal-employee exchange program, initiated by then-Courchevel Mayor Phillip Mugnier, and embraced by Park City officials, as a pilot platform to help community leaders learn from one another. According to Tina, while both towns share many common denominators, key differences also unite them in a mutual desire to bridge economic gaps and resort processes. 

“Courchevel is very interested in our summer trails program and is very interested in learning from us. They keep saying, ‘We can’t be four-season,’ and I keep saying, ‘Yes, you can. Look at how we did it,’” she says. “We tell them, you need to host concerts, you need to start with one hotel and one restaurant, you need to develop your trails, host mountain bike races. There’s a lot they can learn from our process to keep their town alive in the summer.” Alternatively, Tina insists Park City can learn from Courchevel’s mountain processes. “They were amazed that we still use avalanche bombs,” she laughs. “And their mountain snow-making machines? All robots, all automated. Just a large building with massive terminals and a lot of buttons.” She fondly adds, “There’s so much we continue to learn from one another.” 

What began as a curiosity into a shared vision between ski towns has evolved for more than four decades into something far more meaningful: a living, breathing relationship rooted in exchange, friendship, and the belief that even from opposite sides of the world, the true landscape is one of community.