Do skiing and culture mix? Rarely. In 1834 the French novelist Balzac wrote about it in his novel Séraphîta, but the kit was rudimentary to say the least. (“Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right heel, arresting the plank – six and a half feet long and narrow as the foot of a child – which was fastened to his boot by a double thong of leather.”)
A century later another Frenchman, Jean-Paul Sartre, ventured to the slopes of   … More