To Courchevel for impeccable skiing, gourmet food and luxury lodgings

The dining room is bright and quiet, the grey-uniformed servers moving with cultured efficiency. It is lunchtime at Le Chabichou, in the French Alps. I’m supposed to be skiing the slopes of Courchevel, but a change of plan placed me here instead, and I’m happy about it.

The heavy snowfall has lifted, revealing perfect, sheet-white slopes, the vista crowned by Mont Blanc, in the distance. With my American wife, German-American son and two British cousins, I have come to Courchevel, which, together with the rest of the Three Valleys, is the largest ski area in Europe, at the perfect time.

I deposited the skis and boots at chic sports shop L’Atelier, changed into jeans and presented myself to the tourist office, asking for the name of a good restaurant. A woman recommends Le Chabichou, a two-star Michelin restaurant founded and run by Michel Rochedy, the man who brought gourmet cooking to this corner of the Alps.

And so the bread arrives, escorted by two different kinds of butter. I order the lunch special. One amuse-bouche and then another builds a hopeful anticipation for the appetiser. What particularly intrigues me, however, is an egg-shaped portion of spinach and carrot sorbet.

Courchevel is actually comprised of five villages: Saint Bon, Courchevel Le Praz, Courchevel Village, Courchevel Moriond, and Courchevel. The villages are sometimes referenced by their altitude in metres above sea level, with plain Courchevel (aka Courchevel 1850) being the highest and therefore the most desirable. There are 19 five-star hotels in the region, including three “palais” super-luxury properties. Consider, in contrast, that the famously exclusive St Moritz region of Switzerland makes do with nine such properties.

The combined Three Valleys area offers kilometres of easy and intermediate slopes – and more than a few challenging runs for experts. In a week of trying in great conditions, we could not ski it all, but we could not have done as much as we did were it not for Dominique Chambard, one of the area’s approximately 1,000 instructors. Dominique introduced us to the lifts, which, like the train system of France, utilise the hub and spoke system – here to move people from base areas with gondolas and chairs radiating towards the outlying runs. Now 59, he recalled his youth, which was not long after skiing came to this corner of the Alps, immediately following the second world war; only a short time before, what is now Courchevel 1850 was little more than a summer pasture for cows. (They still graze here, incubating the milk for Beaufort cheese.) A masterful teacher, Dominique watched my wife and me ski nearly the whole day until he told each of us exactly what we needed to change to perform better – and he was spot on.

Courchevel has embraced casual chic. When, two days after our arrival, we had a few hours of spa time at the small and exclusive K2 hotel – a palais indeed – it was no offence at all to show up in our ski gear with bathing suits and swim goggles in a simple tote bag.