France's Two Greatest Ski Palaces: Cheval Blanc Courchevel vs Les Airelles

The original Cheval Blanc Maison, opened in 2006, is where the LVMH hotel story began — and it remains the most design-literate hotel on the mountain. Just 36 rooms and suites, finished in a soft, contemporary palette, with ski-in/ski-out access to the Saulire slopes and a Guerlain spa. The scale is deliberately small: this is a hotel that feels like a private chalet run by a brigade who remember your name by the second morning.

Its trump card is Le 1947, Yannick Alléno's three-Michelin-starred restaurant — five tables, twenty-odd covers, open only in winter, and for many serious gastronomes a destination in its own right. Cheval Blanc is for couples, for design lovers, and for the traveller who wants the Alps' finest dining a lift ride from their suite. It is grown-up, hushed and exacting.

Les Airelles is the grande dame of Courchevel — an opulent, gloriously maximalist Palace of carved wood, stained glass and Tyrolean fantasy at the foot of the Bellecôte piste. Where Cheval Blanc whispers, Les Airelles performs: a children's village and dedicated kids' programme, a vast pool, a La Mer spa, and 44 rooms and suites that feel like a Mitteleuropa stage set in the best possible way.

Dining is led by Pierre Gagnaire pour Les Airelles, the chef's two-Michelin-starred table, alongside the Savoyard classics of Le Coin Savoyard. This is the address for multi-generational families and for travellers who want the romance and theatre of the Alps turned up to full volume. It is grand, warm and unapologetically magical.