Winter in Megève has always felt like a living snowglobe, with soft white powder whirling and settling over a village that seems almost too perfect to be real. There’s the gentle crunch of ski boots on cobblestones, luxury shops and local épiceries drawing passersby, while the scent of spiced breads and tarts drifts through the air. The church tower rises like something from a postcard, flanked by a giant tree tangled in Christmas lights that linger through March. Everything feels suspended in that particular Alpine air of glamour and nostalgia.
Photo: Stefan Giftthaller
For years, the family-run hotel Les Fermes de Marie, tucked just behind the village and reached by a tree-lined path that follows the creek, has captured the spirit of Megève better than anywhere else. Since opening in the 1980s, it has come to define a certain kind of hospitality here: the perfected Alpine ideal, where families return winter after winter, drawn back by its warmth and familiarity, the feeling of being welcomed into a chalet with a history that goes back generations.
Days fall into a cozy rhythm at Les Fermes, with mornings beginning over a memorable country-style breakfast of local cheeses, like Beaufort and Reblochon, house-made jams, and baked goods, afternoons on the slopes, and long meals at the Sibuet family’s beloved tables—whether on property, in town, or up on the mountain. Children pad through corridors in slippers, bodies recover in the outdoor hot tub as snow falls, and evenings end by the fire with a glass of wine. In many ways, Les Fermes de Marie has long served as the benchmark for Megève hotels, establishing a standard of warmth and charm that has defined the village for generations.
But Megève, though deeply rooted in tradition, has always had room for new expressions of its magic. At the top of the storybook pedestrian street, just steps from the ski lifts and the bustle of the village, a new addition has arrived to expand Megeve’s quintessential vision of Alpine hospitality. This winter season, Hôtel Saint-Georges has reopened with a very different kind of energy—that of a modern Alpine fairytale.
Photo: Nolwenn Pernin