Cheval Blanc Courchevel – the chalet that invented a hotel brand

Cheval Blanc Courchevel opened in 2006 as the very first Maison of LVMH's Cheval Blanc brand, built where a tired hotel-restaurant called La Caravelle once stood, in the Jardin Alpin quarter of Courchevel 1850 – the same slopes where Bernard Arnault learned to ski as a boy. The old building was pulled down and rebuilt over two years, then named after the most celebrated vintage of Château Cheval Blanc, already part of the group's portfolio. Interior architect Sybille de Margerie, who had previously worked on the Mandarin Oriental in Paris, shaped a chalet of wood, leather, steel and bronze with art and design pieces at every turn. The MICHELIN Guide gives the house Three MICHELIN Keys, and inside it Yannick Alléno's Le 1947 holds three MICHELIN stars – the only such table in Courchevel. Thirty-six rooms and suites, ski-in, ski-out access and a Guerlain spa complete a Maison that set the template every later Cheval Blanc would follow.

01The house

The story begins with a demolition. Cheval Blanc Courchevel opened its doors in 2006 in the Jardin-Alpin district, on the very slopes where Bernard Arnault learned to ski as a child. The site had previously held a hotel-restaurant in poor condition, La Caravelle; it was demolished, rebuilt and renamed after two years of work. The name was borrowed from the great Bordeaux vintage château Cheval Blanc, already part of the luxury group, and it was the first hotel to carry the Cheval Blanc name anywhere in the world.

Sybille de Margerie, who had already worked on the Mandarin Oriental in Paris, was given the interiors, and scattered works of art and design pieces throughout the building. The result is a chalet that reads as resolutely contemporary rather than rustic, built on an intimate, residential scale rather than the vast footprint of a conventional grand hotel.

02Rooms and suites

With just 36 rooms and suites, Cheval Blanc Courchevel offers an exclusive residential experience and warm, attentive service, with each room treated as its own space, expressed through a bold colour palette and bespoke furnishings. The hierarchy runs from six Superior Rooms of 40 to 42 sqm up through eleven Deluxe Superior Rooms of 45 to 48 sqm with southern exposure and views of the Saulire, and twelve Junior Suites of 50 to 62 sqm, each punctuated by its own flourish – a flotation bath in one, a private sauna in another.

Insider tip

Open winter season only; book Le 1947's five tables well ahead of a December–April stay.

Higher still, the Duplex Suite spreads a bedroom and library over two floors across 75 sqm, while the Deluxe Duplex Suite doubles that to 105 sqm with a balcony that wraps the entire floor. For groups, the three-bedroom Chalet occupies around 315 sqm over four storeys with its own spa treatment room and private screening room, and the four-bedroom Apartment goes further again: over 650 sqm with a triple reception room with grand piano, a dining room, a private bar and kitchen, a dedicated butler, and a private lift running straight down to an independent ski room. Throughout the Maison runs a Living Gallery of curated design and more than 200 works of art.

03Where to eat

Le 1947 à Cheval Blanc is the reason gastronomes climb to the Jardin Alpin at all. Yannick Alléno arrived at the stoves in 2008, and nine years later, in 2017, the MICHELIN Guide awarded a third star, making it the only three-starred table in Courchevel. The room takes its name from the most prestigious vintage ever produced at Château Cheval Blanc, and it seats only five tables for twenty-two diners a night, open just four months of the year in step with the ski season.

Away from the tasting menu, Le Grill Alpin keeps a cozy, fire-inspired kitchen running from dawn to dusk, while La Terrasse de Cheval Blanc gathers guests around a large bonfire gleaming onto the slopes from noon to midnight. For private occasions there is La Table de Partage, and round-the-clock in-room dining for evenings spent by the fire.

04The bar

Le Bar carries the day into evening with live music, while a short walk away a yurt is installed outside at the foot of the piste as a dedicated cigar room – a cosy, smoke-filled counterpoint to the glass and marble of the main house, and a favourite stop for an après-ski digestif before dinner.

05Spa and wellbeing

Cheval Blanc Spa by Guerlain opens through the winter season, from December to April, daily between 10am and 8pm, with five individual treatment rooms plus the Orchidée Salon for couples. The house's architectural set-piece is its swimming pool, crowned with a mirrored ceiling and ringed by a forest of birch trees, leading into a sequence of winter baths: a sauna, a chromotherapy hammam-steam room, a whirlpool and an outdoor Russian banya. Hair Room Service by John Nollet rounds out the beauty offer. Families are equally well catered for, with the children's area Le Carrousel and a dedicated teenage cocoon, Le Paddock, complete with its own screening room.

06The neighbourhood

The Maison sits directly on the slope in Courchevel's prestigious Jardin Alpin, with ski-in, ski-out access to Les Trois Vallées, the largest interconnected ski domain in the world. Cheval Blanc is expanding its footprint here: in December 2026 two further properties – a five-bedroom and a nine-bedroom chalet – open opposite the original Maison, their architecture for communal spaces entrusted to Peter Marino and their interiors featuring landscape frescoes by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, straw marquetry by Lison de Caunes, and works by René Bidet and Guy de Rougemont.

07Making the most of a stay

Because the Maison and Le 1947 both run strictly to the Alpine calendar, opening each winter since 2006, a booking needs to be timed to the season rather than assumed year-round – reserve the restaurant's five tables well ahead for a December-to-April stay. Guests who are not sleeping at the hotel can still request access to the pool and winter baths, l'Univers du Nageur, on application to the spa.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.