This chalet is only available to guests booking the whole chalet for sole use.
Chalet Les Gnellets, Val D'Isere
Les Gnellets was built a couple of decades ago in the time-honoured local way, all wood and stone, with some of the rooms tucked in under the massive roof timbers. It is a pretty, comfortable and welcoming chalet.
The room the time-honoured locals obviously planned to spend most of their time in is the spacious, high-ceilinged, open-plan dining-sitting-room-kitchen, with its log fire surrounded by sofas, its terrace, mezzanine etc.
There’s a super master bedroom with a balcony overlooking the Calabourdane stream, and both a bath and a very indulgent rain-head shower. Two other bedrooms have en-suite facilities, while the last two share a bathroom and separate loo. These two rooms are tucked under the rafters, up a staircase with not one but two low beams to test sobriety.
'There are two more beds on the mezzanine above the living room, which children or friends can take at half price, although we cannot guarantee flight seats for these two extra beds.
Les Gnellets has always generated a particularly laid-back and contented atmosphere, possibly because it feels good, with all the larch and granite, perhaps because it is so convenient for skiing, with the cable car station and pistes a couple of minutes away. At night the loudest sound from without is the babble of the stream or the occasional lowing of Val d’Isère’s milk supply in the nearby farm. From within, there is occasionally a lot more noise, but Les Gnellets is one of our few chalets with no near neighours to complain.
The chalet is in the lovely hamlet of Le Joseray, five minutes’ walk from the village centre, though there are shops, bars and restaurants close by.
Features - Chalet Les Gnellets, Val D'Isere
- Very popular chalet, spacious and full of atmosphere.
- Long, high living room with log fire, verandah and mezzanine with extra beds.
- Wifi
- Three bedrooms have en-suite facilities, two share bathroom and separate wc.
- Boot warmer.
- In hamlet of Le Joseray, next to Chez Savoy and Moraine, three minutes’ walk from lifts, pistes and bus, six from centre.
- No near neighbours, so insomniac clog-dancers welcome.
- A chef and an assistant, who live out.
All of our chalets have excellent hot water, more than adequate heating, CD players, radios, hairdryers, irons and ironing boards, chess, backgammon, Scrabble and cards. Each chalet has a mobile phone for emergency and incoming calls. Guests wishing to use it for outgoing calls can buy credit from the shops. No chalet has a land line. Guests wishing to use the internet need mobile connection or to visit one of the several internet cafes.
Accommodation - Chalet Les Gnellets, Val D'Isere
5 bedrooms for 10/12 guests, with 3 baths, 1 shower
- Bedroom 1: Double (12’6” x 11’) on the ground floor with en-suite bathroom, separate wc and private balcony.
- Bedroom 2: Twin (12’ x 10’) on the ground floor, en-suite bathroom with wc.
- Bedroom 3: Double (10’ x 9’6”) on ground floor, with en-suite shower and basin.
- Bedroom 4: Twin (10’ x 9’6”) on the first floor. Sweet room tucked under the eaves.
- Bedroom 5: Twin (9’ x 9’6”) next door to and rather like Bedroom 4. It is larger than the measurements given, but part is not very accessible owing to the low beams.
- Bathrooms: As well as the en-suite facilities there is a wc on the ground floor. On the first floor there is a bathroom with bath and basin and a small separate wc for rooms 4 and 5.
- Sitting-Dining Room:(22’6” x 13’6”) Long and high, with sofas around the fireplace. The kitchen (not included in measurements) is off the dining area. Mezzanine (13’ x 13’). WiFi.
- Extra Beds: Two half-price single beds on the mezzanine.
Meals - Chalet Les Gnellets, Val D'Isere
We start with a proper breakfast. Fruit juice, porridge, Dorset cereals, bacon, eggs, baguettes straight from the famous local bakery, a croissant or pain au chocolat if you like, yogurts, British tea and fresh coffee from Italian espresso pots (with Nescafé and bizarre infusions for those who prefer them). A Cooked Breakfast option is also available.
You return from the slopes to find bread and jam, a freshly-baked cake, hot chocolate etc. left out for you.
Nightly canapés are followed by a three-course, fixed-menu, dinner-party-style meal. The cuisine is largely French, though with a fusion of other influences – what Londoners call Modern British. (Foreign, in other words.) With dinner, we serve free unlimited quantities of a selection of very drinkable French AOC wines and vins de pays.
Please note: The chalet host will have a day off during the course of the week, during which you will be required to eat out.