We stayed in 4 "traditional hotel-chalets" of the former associative network Hôtels-Chalets de tradition, which has since joined the SEH United Hoteliers group at the end of 2017. If you don't know this quality label, we'll tell you about it in two words. Before the merger, it was a network of 28 3 or 4 star hotels all located around the Mont Blanc and spread over Switzerland, Italy and France. All the guests were of course carefully selected according to 500 criteria and their hotels are far from the large standardised chain structures. At the end of 2017, 14 of the 28 hotels were under the brand The Originals Hotels brand with 600 hotels in 12 European countries.
The owners of the "traditional hotel-chalets" always have great family stories to tell about their establishment. The families have always given us a very warm welcome .Hospitality! And we could observe that it was the same with all the guests of the different hotels.
Everything is done to make you feel at home but in the mountains.
In addition, the interior decoration is always taste ful, whether in the rooms or in the common areas. Real cocoons where you feel good for sure. And to get ideas for visits and outings, they are never short of good advice. We recommend this network of hotels if you like to feel pampered. The service!
Before telling you about the 4 hotels we tested, we invite you to read this experience in the Alps in summer: Meeting people who love Grand-Bornand and the French Alps. You can also find the list of the 15 experiences we tested in the Alps, of which this blog post is part.
Sleep in a traditional hotel-chalet where hospitality is combined with authenticity.
4-star Hermitage traditional hotel-chalet at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France
Located just a stone's throw from the lively historic centre of Chamonix and nestled in a landscaped park, the4-star Hermitage hotel run by Sophie and Michel Paccard is spread over 3 chalets offering 23 rooms and 5 suites.
The large family chalet-hotel with its characterful rooms, not forgetting the common areas such as the breakfast room or the bar and its lounges for relaxation or reading, a large chalet offering very spacious and comfortable family rooms (suites) with a view of the Bossons glacier, and a house. Top if you are driving, the establishment has a large car park.
The family chalet has a real history as we like it. A history that has lasted for generations. Moreover, Michel is very proud to introduce us to his 2 daughters who will soon write the next chapter in the history of the family business.
Nothing to say about the rooms, except that our suite, like all the other rooms we visited, has its own character, combining traditional and modern, and often offering a superb view of the Bossons glacier. Impeccably kept, everything is there to live a pure moment of happiness and plenitude almost at the foot of Mont Blanc.
The lounges and the Savoyard rooms of the Hermitage hotel in Chamonix really invite you to relax and recharge your batteries.
Breakfast is a feast. Everything is very fresh with a good number of local products from jams to cheeses or charcuterie.
Time flies at the Hotel Hermitage in Chamonix.
Activities to do not far away in summer: visit the sea of ice. We tell you about it in this other part of the top. You can also take the cable car up to the Aiguille du Midi. Inwinter in Chamonix, there is of course also skiing.
The 4 star Auberge de la Maison in Entrèves near Courmayeur in Italy
Authenticity, conviviality, relaxation
These three words sum up the atmosphere of our stay at the 4-star Auberge de la Maison in the small village of Entrèves located between the famous Italian resort of Courmayeur and the no less famous Mont Blanc tunnel, on a spectacular site unique in the world at the foot of the Alpine giant.
The view of the Mont Blanc and the Brenva glacier is guaranteed in good weather from the hotel. The Auberge de la Maison was built in 1996 and opened its doors in 1999. Alessandra Garin, whom we meet today, has been the owner since 2004. Her family has been in the business since the 1960s.
In 2015, a small, cosy spa opened within the hotel with organic hay oil massage. And that's a treat, I hear!
The rooms are spotless and spacious. The very comfortable beds invite you to sleep well. We even have a balcony with its characteristic Alpine geraniums. The welcome by Alessandra Garin, the very friendly owner of the hotel, and all her team was fabulous. Throughout the stay, the staff were extremely professional.
Alessandra took care of the interior decoration. Family heirlooms, paintings bought at auction and other wonders found in flea markets adorn all the walls and set the scene in all the hotel's spaces. Once again, everything is well thought out by the mistress of the house, or chalet, we should say.
"The Auberge de la Maison is a family home between the mountains and the glacier, in the heart of Mont Blanc, a place rich in tradition where time stands still to better share it with loved ones.
Alessandra Garin
The breakfast is an excellent sweet and savoury buffet with local products and specialities from the Aosta Valley. Not to be missed.
Dinner is available at the hotel's restaurant l'Auberge de la Maison. From local products (cold cuts, cheeses, etc.) to home-made pasta, not forgetting the fruit salads and the excellent mountain wine. This is an address not to be missed in the region.
A table that we will not forget. As an aperitif, we fell in love with a prosecco made from the vineyards that grow in the region at an altitude of over 1000 metres. This is what we call a high altitude wine. You have to try it!
The Auberge de la Maison is no longer part of the network since the end of 2017 but the welcome and the services are still there ^^ We have found the rates on booking that you can find here :
Activities to do in the summer : the skyway cable car or the AE mountain bike.
Hotel-Chalet de tradition Notre Maison 3 stars in Cogne, Italy
Another not formal establishment in Cogne, but a quality establishment of the Hotel-Chalet de tradition network and still part of the network today. It definitely deserves its place in this blog post. We recommend this excellent address if you are staying in the smallest Italian region, the Aosta region in the Italian Alps.
The Aosta region is surrounded by the highest mountains in Europe. It's a sight to behold!
The entire Celesia family warmly welcomes us, an Italian family that has been here for 40 years, with 3 generations represented. An Italian family with stories to tell.
The Notre Maison hotel has 30 all-comfort rooms and has the particularity of being self-sufficient in energy through wood. A technical feat considering that they manage to keep the pool water at 35 degrees all year round. An establishment that manages to combine ecology and well-being.
And it all starts at the reception. The reception/office is in the middle of a gigantic and impressive common room built all in wood which shelters the restaurant and its menu rather directed towards traditional local cooking, a very pleasant bar-lounge space to take an aperitif in front of the central fireplace. Always very pleasant.
To reach our room, we enter with our keys in a corridor-tunnel pierced with windows and some exits towards the swimming pool, the garden and the outdoor restaurant area. In winter, this passage allows us toavoid going through the outside to go from one chalet to the other. Clever! Sometimes the passage can be a real tunnel built underground. It is a family desire to have it built above ground.
Our room is very spacious. It is a suite. Very nice volumes, a balcony which gives on the mountains and the bottom of the valley, a very comfortable big bed, a bathroom with shower and bathtub. In short, everything to spend a relaxing and comfortable stay in the Italian Alps. There is even a fireplace in front of the living area.
The only drawback is that not much is missing to have a real crush on this room. Very clean, it could use a little refreshment on the interior decoration side. The main thing is to sleep well and to be calm, you'll tell me.
The novelty is their heated outdoor pool which allows you to enjoy the mountain while relaxing, andat night, thanks to the LEDs installed at the bottom of the pool, and if you add the reflections of the moon and the stars on the water, you can't help but take out your camera to immortalize this absolutely magical and very romantic moment. We didn't ask if skinny dipping was allowed ^^
During the day, you can also enjoy the hotel'swellness and relaxation area.
Our House, a house of well-being!
Please note: the establishment is open from June to the return of the cows from the mountain pastures, i.e. between the last week of September and the first week of October.
Finally, it should be noted that in winter, the cross-country ski trails pass in front of the hotel.
Activities to do in the summer: hiking in the Grand Paradis National Park
Grand-Bornand - Traditional Hotel-Chalet Les fermes de Pierre et Anna 3 stars
A few kilometres from the resort of Grand-Bornand is located on an exceptional territory and a place of tradition, the chalet of the farms of Pierre and Anna which is in fact the resumption and the transformation into a 3 star hotel of the old farm of the grandparents of Marie-Christine Perillat that the initiates call Kinette, the current owner with her husband of the hotel-chalet of tradition A hotel that has remained under the new label.
She looks after her guests as if they were her own children. If you run out of something here, it's really because you've asked for it, because the owners are so considerate that nothing can happen to you, and we love that! Hospitality is the key word here.
The family chalet hotel, built over 300 years ago, offers 8 rooms including 1 suite and 1 room for the disabled.
With the golf course - opened 30 years ago - directly in front of our room's terrace and with a cross-country ski run in winter, comfort and tranquillity are guaranteed day and night. What more could you ask for? We are in the green and calm, the winning duo to relax.
As for the interior decoration, everything is made of wood of course, but it remains simple and tasteful. You feel good and when it's time for breakfast, what a pleasure to have it under the morning sun on the terrace with a unique view on the Aravis chain and the Bouchet valley. The blueberry and raspberry tarts are excellent. Don't miss the excellent home-made jams either. The rest, we leave to you to discover it if you pass in the area.
For dinner, the hotel does not have a restaurant (except for breakfast) but this is not a problem because 50 metres away, there is the club house of the 9-hole golf course managed by the same family. You can enjoy a good bottle of Saint-Joseph wine with a small (that's what it says on the menu) platter of charcuterie and cheese from the region. We didn't eat it all as our meat arrived. You can eat local here. We dined outside (indoors is also possible), watching the golfers hit their balls.
And after such a good meal, nothing better than to go back to our room after a little walk in the surroundings. At the beginning of July, the farmers take advantage of the fine weather to make their hay. Our senses are awake. And we marvel at this mountain so alive in this season, vibrant especially at sunset when the summits of the Aravis massif are tinged with pink.
So it is with great images in our heads that we return to our cocoon to spend a restful night.
Good plan : if you don't have a car, you should know that there is a stop just in front of the hotel and yet we are really at the bottom of the valley. In only 8 minutes, you arrive in the centre of Le Grand-Bornand. Very practical!
Half-board stays are possible.
Full address: 4722 route de la vallée du Bouchet - Le Grand-Bornand - Tel: 04 50 51 54 99
By mail : contact(@)fermes-pierre-anna.com
Activity to be practised not far away in summer: Hike to the refuge of Gramusset.
This article is part of a 15 article dossier on the Alps in summer.
Other activity in the Alps in summer: Our best addresses where to taste the alpine gastronomy
The experiences shared here were made with thetourist office of Grand-Bornand and the ex-network hotel-chalet de tradition.
