THE TOP OF THE ROCK
Opened in 2019, the Refuge de Solaise in the Val d’isère, is the highest hotel in the Alpes. To get there, you take the cable car before finding yourself isolated in the evening at 2550 meters high. A unique experience in the world.
Up until then everything was fine. We managed to wake up on time. We did the five hour train ride and two separate vans up to Bourg-saint-maurice. We thought the worst was behind us until Marie, the manager of Refuge de Solaise called us in panic: “Hurry up! The cable cars are going to shut down. There’s too much wind. A storm is on the way!” Panic on board. Questions come faster than answers: where are we going to sleep? And what about the fashion shoot scheduled? Do you think we can buy cigarettes up there? The people around me look devastated as they were upon hearing about Karl Lagerfeld’s demise last week. When we arrive at the roundabout near the ski slopes, some good news awaits: Marie has convinced the ski lift staff exceptionally to let us get on. But we have to be quick.
The skiers have already deserted the slopes. The snowy tree-tops are bending in the gusts of wind. Two hotel employees heave our luggage onto a palette on two snowboards and it’s giddy up… Just as
I climb into the cable car, the operator tells me: “And don’t forget to make the sign of the cross”, doing it as he speaks. Then the doors close and the machine throws itself into the void. Last sign of terrestrial life: two shadows wearing skis slipping past as they brave the weather and disappear. The cable car sinks into a huge, white and fluffy space. At that moment, the opening scene of the film The Shining pops into my head: an aerial view of a car climbing upward through the mountains to the sound of an eerie tune, before it arrives at the hotel lost in the middle of nowhere…
Luckily, Jack Nicholson is not here. But Luka
Sabbat is. The millennial model/actor decides to broadcast our misfortunes to his 2 million Insta followers. Val d’isère has to be the most high-tech ski resort in the world. Even in a cable car lost in a blizzard, you can get wifi.
When the cable car docks, gusts of hard snow hit our faces. I feel like I’m in an old U2 video clip. The hotel is only a hundred meters away but the carpet of snow is so deep that we may sink into it with every step. A snow-track buggy appears out of nowhere to save us from certain death. Our little group hurries on-board and we reach our basecamp safely at last.
A striking contrast: the wind howls outside, but inside, everything is peaceful and warm. The ceiling is 6-meters high, the carpet has a Scottish pattern and the woodwork is alpine, endless club couches, an Americanstyle bar, armchairs with different wool or cloth backs, panoramic bay-windows… I can hardly imagine what it must have cost to build this palace hotel at such an altitude. When the former Solaise cable car station closed in 2016, this luxury refuge was just a dream. In little more than two summers, Jean-charles Coverall and Jean-luc Borel have brought that dream to life. The restaurant, whose terrace is packed on sunny days and which inspired my first novel, has been remodeled from top to bottom.
The former cable car dock has been converted into spacious rooms. Some of the building materials had to be hoisted with helicopters and hotel supplies arrive each morning by cable car. Suddenly, a thought makes me anxious: what if the cable cars stay closed due to bad weather? The young blond hotel attendant who has just greeted us, informs me that there’s nothing to worry about, there’s a cold storage facility and a stock room. That’s lucky: when you’re 2500m above sea-level, it’s hard to find a grocery store open after 10 p.m.
We take to our quarters in the 380 square meter penthouse above, which can accommodate 18 people. On the first floor, several rooms in their original state, with free-standing bath-tubs and Italian tiles. On the second, a huge Chalet-style space with an open-plan kitchen, a living room, a 10-meter long dining table and a terrace with breath-taking views. That is, on days when you can see anything… Outside, it’s a real snow maelstrom. Far away, I spot four trackers followed by a dog skiing down a slope. Then, there’s nothing. A desert.
The hazy silhouettes of pylons. A funeral procession of stopped cable cars. No other movement on the horizon. A strange impression of having gone back to the time before man inhabited the planet.
Alas, that’s one species which has been increasing ever since: my fellow rush around getting ready for the fashion shoot.
They unpack tons of equipment while making snobbish comments - “Foundation is so unrefined; it’s a way of cheating on a woman’s beauty”, says Sergio, our Peruvian make-up artist. “Where are our two models, Camille and Adèle?”, someone asks.
“They are having a bubble bath.” “You mean together, in the same bath? And how do you know that? Were you with them?”
We finally manage to get everyone together for the dinner served in the hotel restaurant.
On the menu, there’s tartiflette, washed down with an excellent Savoie white wine. We are alone in the restaurant but I can imagine the atmosphere if the hotel rooms were all open: the most private party in the Alps. Everyone is laughing about this apocalyptic snowstorm. Our producer tried to go outside for a cigarette, and was immediately blown away. The cigarette, that is… Some people discuss switching off the smoke detectors. In his last novel, Michel Houellebecq, spends his time unscrewing them in his hotel rooms. No, there’s an easier way, little Camille tells me, you stuff a sock in them, that’s what all my friends do at the university dorm. But Adèle doesn’t seem at ease: she has a film to do in two days.
And what if she can’t get back down? Well, they say you just go down by snow-cat, the hotel manager knows how to drive one. Or else you can go by sled, but that seems more dangerous. The evening ends with a drink of Génépi, and everyone goes to bed.
The next day, the weather hasn’t improved. White on white. It’s like a Malevitch painting. The designer had planned on using a drone for the shoot. “Forget it, if you take it out in this weather, it’ll end up in Italy.” To comfort us, the hotel has put on a gargantuan breakfast: croissants, cured ham, cow’s cheese. In the library, I find Nicolas Vanier’s Mémoires glacées, in the end opt for a copy of Saint Augustin’s Tractatus that I’d brought with me. One never knows: if I never get out of this, at least I’ll have prepared myself a spot in Heaven.
The rest of the day goes by with interviews and visits to the areas due to open at the end of 2019: rooms with views over the valley and the lac du Chevril; a dormitory with bunks on two levels, for fans of the film Les bronzés font du ski; the ski shop and projection room for bad weather days; and last but not least the spa and the 25-meter long pool, with a view of the sunset… That evening, the snow groomers come in for a bite to eat in the restaurant. One of them agrees to take me for a spin in his 12-ton vehicle. It’s a disconcerting feeling to be alone in the night in the midst of those white dunes. I ask him if he’s afraid of coming across ghosts or the yeti. No, but sometimes he comes across lost walkers or pale foxes. The only real danger here is avalanches. He once found himself buried underneath one, and only just got out by digging centimeter by centimeter with his blade and rear milling machine. Next to me, Luka Sabbat doesn’t seem reassured. Especially when our driver makes a stop in the middle of nowhere to unblock his water-filter.
I watch him outside, braving the snowstorm. With his wrinkled face and long white hair, what if he’s the Jack Nicholon of Solaise? The next day a miracle occurs: the sun burns brightly in the sky. A spectacular view of the Alpine cirque and its shining summits. I can finally achieve my ultimate fantasy: to have the slopes all to myself. And here
I go, throwing myself onto the snow which is like a blank white page onto which I trace words with the ink from my skis. The Refuge de Solaise is a novel unto itself.
THE HOTEL
18 rooms, from 300 € a night, breakfast included. A single bunk in the dormitory costs from 100 € per night, with access to all hotel facilities.
THE RESTAURANT
Open every day to the public for lunch. Possibility of coming for dinner once a week (the cable cars then close at 11 pm). Reserved for hotel guests at other times.
THE SPA
Sauna, hammam, 25m indoor pool, 5 beauty rooms with local products from the Savoie region, by Julie Exertier.
INFORMATION
Tel. +33 7 77 14 12 90. info@lerefuge-valdisere.com Lerefuge-valdisere.com