Les Airelles

Courchevel

Courchevel, in the Savoy region and in the heart of one of the largest domains in the world, is the jet setter ski resort par excellence. Created after the war to offer workers with paid vacations an inexpensive holiday, it has become a favorite winter sports station for the world’s rich and famous. Consisting of five villages, Saint-Bon, Courchevel-Le-Praz, Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 and Courchevel 1850, the station has a variety of panoramas and five different ways of approaching the mountains. Five villages, five different altitudes, and the higher the altitude, the more select the site. The Saint-Tropez of winter holidays can therefore be found at the resort’s highest altitude, Courchevel 1850. It’s here that Courchevel earned its internationally renowned reputation. Except for the entrance to the station and the Croisette, the village has been spared the use of concrete. Small private chalets, luxury hotels and the chalets of multi-millionaires make up the rest of this charming village, built primarily with wood. Boutiques bearing the greatest names in fashion and jewelry and lively nightclubs abound to the satisfaction of a prestigious clientele in search of after ski activities.

A chalet palace

The hotel Les Airelles, adjacent to the ski slopes, was opened in 1850. Built in the Italian Tyrolean-Hungarian style with its painted façade and its turrets, the hotel is a veritable Palace in the heart of the mountains, a distinction it received officially in 2011 upon earning its fifth star, which stands for “establishments which present exceptional characteristics embodying excellence of service and facilities and contribute to the reputation of France throughout the world”. Some of these “exceptional characteristics” include antique hexagonal red floor tiles recovered from a Burgundy chateau, made to measure windows, painted wood paneled ceilings and an earthenware stove made by Florentine artists.

The hotel’s 37 rooms and 14 suites are all decorated with wood panels, rare objects and antique carpets. The private apartment on the top floor measures 550 square meters and has an outdoor Jacuzzi and a 150 square meter terrace facing the snow-covered slopes. Brocaded fabrics from the Rubelli house, precious silks, designer furniture like the immense bench taken from a movie theatre, the bar, the dining room seats created by Christophe Tollemer and the made to measure hand painted fabrics all contribute to the majesty of this site frequented by crowned heads and the world’s rich and famous.

The restaurant, in the capable hands of three-star Chef, Pierre Gagnaire, is an exact replica of a carriage in which Sissi, the Austrian empress travelled. The crystal Saint-Louis chandeliers light up the room and the furniture designed by Olivier Gagnère and Moissonier.

There is also a large salon, a library, a movie theatre and a game room exclusively for children with a three by six meter castle. The swimming pool, spa, private skating rink, luxury boutiques and three other restaurants complete the avalanche of services available at this palace where even children have their own kingdom.

The hotel possesses the world’s first snow cave. A shower of natural snowflakes refreshes the body and the spirit at ten below zero Celsius, between two visits to the sauna.