Squaw Valley

We British tend to see the French as arrogant and chauvinistic. Well, Nicolas Chauvin may have been French, but most Brits who live in France don’t think they’re arrogant at all. Far from it: after a couple of centuries of coming last in everything from World Wars to the Eurovision Song Contest, they are desperate to find something to be arrogant about. While the English are always surprised when they lose at something, the French are always amazed when they don’t! What most French people want is to be American, and if they can’t manage that, to go to America.

And that’s how Val d’Isère’s smartest résidence got its name: so that smart Parisians could drop at drinks parties that they were off to Squaw Valley for the weekend. (Though why they’d want anybody to think that they were going somewhere with as many beds as the Espace Killy, a third of the lifts and a sixth of the skiing it is hard to imagine…)

Unlike the original, our Squaw Valley is spacious and quiet, and much appreciated for its calm, understated décor, with lots of wood, granite and plain white. It is just between the church and the nursery slopes. You may not actually be planning to go to Mass during your holiday, but with the church always the choicest piece of real estate in any French village, next door is bound to be pretty good. Being literally a few seconds’ walk from the edge of Val d’Isère’s runs, a couple of drag lifts and lunch at the Grande Ourse isn’t bad, and everything else you need in the village is within a hundred metres or so.

If you’re coming to the best-located building in town, you might as well stay in its best-located apartment. Ours is on the first floor (with a lift for the really lazy). It gives a superb view of Bellevarde. It has a large sitting-dining room with a balcony, TV and DVD, two smart little bedrooms, one bathroom, one shower-room and two loos. It is perfect.

Rooms in order of preference (in our opinion):
Bedroom 1: Double/twin (11’ x 10’) with smart en-suite bathroom and wc.
Bedroom 2: Double/twin (10’ x 9’) with en-suite shower-room and a separate wc outside the bedroom.
Sitting-Dining Room: (20’ x 13’) Attractive room with two vast, comfortable sofas, windows and balcony looking towards the Face de Bellevarde. Separate kitchen.

Central location, beside the church just yards away from the slopes.

• Telephone: 0845 122 1414
  
• Telephone 2: 0845 122 1414
  
• Fax: 0845 122 1415
  
• Web: http://www.yseski.co.uk
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