Do you Believe in Magic?
Suitcase packed, passport, wallet – check and you’re off to the airport! On board the flight you realise you’ve left your GHD’s at home. Disaster! Oh, but wait – you’re staying at Chalet Chopine, one of Méribel’s most sought after chalets in the exclusive Dou du Pont enclave. A little thing like providing hair straighteners will pose no challenge. You pop your SkiBoutique PA an email using the on board WiFi. Isn’t technology incredible these days?
Your chauffeur driven Mercedes Viano pulls up at the entrance to the private road and the driver taps in the code. As you wait for the barrier to rise you take in your surroundings. You’ve just passed through the centre of Méribel, passed the shops and bars and the Chaudanne lift station – and here you are, right in the centre and yet about to be spirited away in the remarkable, private seclusion of Dou du Pont. Most of these properties must be private. Who owns the big chalet you see peeking out of the trees to the left you wonder? The barrier rises and snaps you out of this reverie – onwards to Chalet Chopine.
Lavish springs to mind as you enter Chopine, so much style and elegance all wrapped up into an utterly cozy, family-sized chalet. It’s no party palace, just a genuine chocolate box of a ski chalet in the perfect spot, and with all the toys guaranteed to hit the spot for the whole group. Including a shiny set of GHD hair straighteners lying waiting for you in your sumptuously furnished en-suite bedroom. Perfect.
You are offered a glass of Perrier Jouet champagne, perfectly chilled, as your chalet manager welcomes you before the crackling log fire, but you find your eyes wandering to the window and the twinkling white stuff outside. You’re thinking about the endless skiing on your doorstep; perfectly in the centre of les Trois Vallées – that’s one of the reasons you chose it after all – and you can’t wait to hit the slopes for first lift in the morning. Right on cue the ski technicians arrive with a selection of kit in your size ready for your in-chalet ski fitting!
The next morning you breakfast like kings ready for a big first day on the mountain – and there’s absolutely no rush. You’re only a minute’s chauffeured drive to the main lift station which will whisk you left up the valley to Courchevel, or right up to Méribel Mottaret and on to the charming St Martin de Belleville – or to Val Thorens perhaps? No St Martin first – you need your first annual ‘hit’ of Jerusalem, your favourite ski run.
After a big day’s skiing – and a couple of glasses of après fizz at the new Folie Douce in Méribel – you’re ready for some relaxation and pampering. Chopine’s spa is delightful; both sauna and hamam are there if you choose, but the Jacuzzi really hits the spot with great views and a floating remote so you can control the music. Very rock and roll! While you relax and let the powerful jets work their magic on your aching ski legs the kids are watching another movie before dinner – the cinema’s a blessing and you’ve hardly seen them anywhere else in the chalet since arriving!
Dinner is the highlight of every evening as your accomplished private chef dazzles you with his skill in the kitchen, producing dish after dish of incredible food for the whole family’s palate – and you thought you were fussy eaters! The whole staff team goes the extra mile for you, ensuring you will be taking home tails of your grand adventures and exploits in the Alps, longing to return. The lasting memory for you will definitely be that wine tasting arranged for you one evening, with fabulous Savoyard wines and some really special vintages – and chef’s heavenly canapés. You feel very special, totally relaxed and indulged, just as it should be. Do you really have to go home??
