Le Cerf Amoureux

There are areas where the French language has a clear advantage over English. The Loving Deer, as the name of an Alpine lodge hotel, would be strange at best. Le Cerf Amoureux, however, strikes just the right note. It’s a side project — a true labor of love — for a Parisian hotelier, and it aims to create the same warm welcome you’d expect from a family-operated chalet. It doesn’t hurt that Le Cerf Amoureux looks directly out at Mont Blanc, or that it’s five minutes from a cable car connecting you to hundreds of miles of first-rate skiing.

Not that you’ll necessarily be in a great hurry to leave the chalet; the rooms are a stylish, comfortable, contemporary take on classic Alpine digs, with a minimalist bent that places them squarely in the 21st century, and with a flexibility — check out the Family rooms or Apartments — that makes them well suited to large parties. Meanwhile it wouldn’t be a proper chalet without a little spa and pool, and the restaurant and lounge have the fine food and creative beverage angles more than competently covered. It’s the next best thing to having a little Alpine lodge of your very own.