London - These days, it isn’t so much the thickness of the carpets as the air that tells you you’ve walked into a really posh hotel.
Wafts of vanilla and truffle combine with expensive wood; it’s as if the smell has been piped in like the scent of fresh bread into a supermarket. It can be slightly suffocating, as I discovered at the latest fragrant monument to the contemporary jetset.
I wanted to see L’Apogée, one of a handful of grand openings in the Alps last year, as part of my attempt to get a sense of the real Courchevel, a ski resort that, perhaps more than any other in an increasingly rich and competitive field, has developed a reputation for excess and mountainous prices, typically converted from roubles.
The hotel rises above the trees at the higher end of the highest of the villages that make up the resort. At 1 850m, the disputed altitude that gives Courchevel 1850 its old name, the air is most rarefied – outside at least – and the roads might as well be lined with fur. Only perhaps in Gstaad, Switzerland, have I seen a higher count of posh watch shops and luxury fashion labels.
Built for the Oetker Collection, the exclusive chain of a half-dozen hotels owned by the German baking conglomerate that also includes Le Bristol in Paris, L’Apogée is a chic spectacle and worth visiting for a cocktail or dinner in the restaurant (or worth staying at if, say, you can spare more than £10 000 – R225 150 – a night for the penthouse). But a growing number of people who live and work in Courchevel are desperate to show there is more to the place than foie gras and humidors.
A photo posted by L'Apogée Courchevel (@lapogeecourchevel) on Mar 4, 2016 at 6:01am PST
Courchevel is part of the seriously huge Trois Vallées ski area that also takes in Méribel, Val Thorens and La Tania. On the slopes leading up the mountain from the main drag in 1850 are two five-star “palace” hotels, 16 regular five-star hotels and seven one- or two-Michelin-starred restaurants. But the broader resort offers as much variety as the miles of pistes and back country that made them a destination in the first place.
Ski down from 1850 and you reach Courchevel 1650, where fur coats are a rare species. I met Nathalie Faure, the resort’s head of communications, at Portetta, my laid-back home for three days. Moriond is the new name for 1650, a rebranding Nathalie hopes will change perceptions.
The Russian-inspired luxury image was at one time a useful marketing tool, Nathalie says, but now the fear is that it’s putting people off one of the world’s greatest ski areas.
Moriond lies along a road that clings to the mountain, a steep escalator’s descent from the main lifts that link into the Vallées. Its main drag of cafés and ski shops is more relaxed than 1850’s. At Le Bubble, a small bar and café, a panini and demi Peroni cost about €6 (about R106) at lunchtime, a price that wouldn’t buy you a peanut higher up the mountain. A pint is €4 at happy hour, and at the Table de Marie, a few doors down, pizzas are between €10 and €15.
There is one five-star hotel, the Manali, but Portetta sets the tone for a new, still-chic, yet relaxed Courchevel. It’s by no means cheap, but is as reasonable as it is relaxed. The lower-key sister to Lime Wood in the New Forest, it rises straight out of the family- and beginner-friendly Belvedere and Mickey pistes, where long button lifts are free.
Angela Hartnett has opened an Italian restaurant, La Cucina Angelina, at the hotel. During my visit in March, its heart was Fire & Ice, an outdoor terrace bar with log fires and a pizza oven. It’s where I met my guides for a breakneck tour of the Trois Vallées.
While the roubles slosh in mostly during the Russian new year in early January, English voices are the most common in Courchevel.
Rory Hoddell is a British ski instructor in Switzerland and one half of the duo behind Camel Snow, the new high-end, low-key British tour operator.
Hoddell learnt to ski at 1850, long before its transformation, while his parents sat in the sun at the Courcheneige Hotel.
A photo posted by L'Apogée Courchevel (@lapogeecourchevel) on Feb 22, 2016 at 8:46am PST
The hotel lies just below the resort’s spectacular mountain airport, but, to Rory’s delight, it still offers a sandwich for €3.
Mark Birch, also a ski instructor, joined us. He not only runs Sweet Snowsports, but is secretary of the British Association of Ski Instructors, and he is desperate for Courchevel to shed its rich image.
“With a bit of guidance and knowledge, it can be reasonable,” he said.
He pointed out Le Chabichou hotel at 1850. It has a two-Michelin-star restaurant, but fewer people know about its delightful Chabotte bistro, where a two-course lunch costs little more than £15 (R337). And you can go much cheaper still.
Up on the mountain, I picked up a panini and a Kit Kat for €6 at Croc Vallée, a tiny snack bar in Les Menuires.
“There’s definitely substance to the reputation of this place,” Mark said. “Property prices are unbelievable. The area of this table would cost you 100 grand at 1850, but normal people do still ski here.”
The Independent
TRAVEL ESSENTIALS
Getting there
Geneva is served by Swiss, easyJet, BA and Jet2.
Staying there
Portetta (www.portetta.com) has doubles from €200 (about R3 500) a person a night, half-board.
Camel Snow (020 8123 2859; camelsnow.com) offers seven nights’ half-board from €1 985 a person, with transfers.
L’Apogée, Courchevel (lapogeecourchevel.com). Double rooms start at €950, half-board.
For more information: www.courchevel.com