Chalet Valambrun

Les Gets in Style

Chalet Valambrun has created its own niche in the pantheon of stellar ski chalets. It has taken that motivating mantra – if it’s worth doing it’s worth overdoing – and done it in style with vivacity, joy and a good-hearted dollop of luxury.

It is also big. In other words, you make the party and there is plenty of space for an extended family group. Apart from the magnificent master suite (we return here later), there are four more double bedrooms, one of which has a triple bunkbed in a side room. Then there is the little bunkbed room too. The open plan living flows through areas to recline or to dine with elegance and lots of space. There is the fabulous, heated pool and spa area, the decadently comfortable cinema lounge, the yoga/fitness studio and the outside hot tub. So, Chalet Valambrun has it all, but it is the delicious way in which it carries it off that sets it apart. With a sense of the exquisite, for sure, reflected in the choice of textiles and lighting, even the bunkbeds are handcrafted and beautiful. But then it adds a touch of flamboyance and a sense of fun.

Every piece of furniture, every artwork, every little ornament, has been curated to bring a smile to your face. That master suite is cosy, romantic, with its Thermorossi stove casting flickering light around the room, and then made extraordinary with a section of glass floor looking down on the swimming pool below. In the hammam the tiles shimmer as though brushed by magic, the outdoor hot tub nestles in rocks like a natural cave, and stars twinkle in a night-sky above the pool (and then you spot Mum and Dad waving through the floor of their bedroom and you know you have entered an enchanted kingdom).

It is unusual to see an open plan kitchen match the sophistication of its surroundings, and yet Chalet Valambrun also meets this challenge with panache. So, it’s a relaxed, sociable environment, for enjoying an aperitif at the kitchen island or on the magnificent sofa in front of the dancing flames of the log fire. Five days a week, a sumptuous 4-course dinner will be served here, and on the sixth, that speciality of the French alps, a tartiflette, will be ready for you to self-serve at your leisure. Chalet style breakfast and afternoon tea will be copious, and a continental breakfast will be laid out on the chalet days off.

A complimentary mini-bus service will ferry you to and from the ski lifts between the hours of 8am and 8pm, so the 700m walk to the La Chavannes station is entirely optional. From here, the Les Gets skiing spreads out, varied and interesting enough for many skiers, but the vast area of the Portes de Soleil is at the tips of the skis (or boards) of those whose ambitions go further. Your ski holiday is, of course, all about fun and that is where Chalet Valambrun, with its unique sense of style and frivolity, ticks all the boxes.