Saint Roch opens this December as the fifth Maisons Pariente address in France and the second in the Alps, settling into its position on the Bellecôte piste a few steps from the centre of Courchevel 1850. The building has been a fixture of the resort for years, and the family has brought it back under a new identity, one drawn from the childhood holidays of the two sisters behind the collection.

“Saint Roch was born of our childhood memories, of mountain holidays, of the joy of a cup of hot chocolate by the fire, and of that wonderful feeling of not wanting to be anywhere else.”

Leslie Kouhana, President and Co-Founder, Maisons Pariente

Leslie Kouhana and Kimberley Cohen have built every one of their houses around a simple conviction: that a hotel should feel as though it grew out of its setting. Their reading of the mountains here is a warm and quiet one. The peaks fill almost every window, while the interiors travel a long way east, to Slavic dachas, the Mongolian steppes and the decorative traditions of ancient Persia.

The Architecture

Studio Friedmann & Versace, led by Virginie Friedmann and Delphine Versace, handled both the architecture and the interior scheme. Their work rests on a dialogue between heritage, craft and contemporary design, with the architecture easing back to let the materials carry the mood. Wood does most of the talking, chosen for the full range of its textures and set against stone, textiles and touches of bronze. Soft light lifts the surfaces and draws out the finer details.

Craftsmanship is woven into the fabric of the place. Agate-stained glass by Atelier Toporkoff catches the light through the public rooms, mosaic frescoes by Pierre Mesguich mark the transitions, and French artisans supplied the ceramics. The art collection, guided by Amélie Maison d’Art, sets twentieth century works alongside contemporary pieces, bronze bas-reliefs beside Persian glazed vases, and the house becomes something close to a habitable gallery.

“We imagined this place as the home of an aesthete: a setting at once elegant, warm and filled with memories. The decorative world, rich and vibrant, draws its inspiration from the Mongolian steppes, the splendor of Russian dachas and the poetry of Persia. Like a protective sanctuary, it reveals an artisanal craft of Slavic influence, elevated by sensual, precious materials — onyx, moiré, agate, wood marquetry, ceramic, mohair velvet — that sculpt an enveloping atmosphere.”

Virginie Friedmann and Delphine Versace, Architects and Founders, Friedmann & Versace

Rooms & Suites

Thirty-seven rooms and suites sit around the shared spaces, each with a character of its own and all speaking the same material language. Wood, velvet and silk set the tone, and the furniture pairs bespoke designs with collected pieces, in the manner of a private house added to over decades. Deep colours carry the scheme through: tobacco brown, garnet red, moss green and midnight blue, worked alongside cashmere prints and fine marquetry. The whole thing lands somewhere between an alpine refuge and a dreamed-up dacha.

Superior, Deluxe and Prestige categories move from intimate to expansive, gaining wider volumes, more sculptural furniture and increasingly generous mountain views. The suites open into proper living spaces, from the first salon of the Junior Suite to the ample proportions of the Deluxe Suite, which suits a couple, a family or a full season equally well.

The fifth floor holds two Prestige Suites of roughly 750 sq ft each, bookable individually, their interconnecting rooms framing the mountain through every window. Add the three adjoining rooms and they form the Penthouse, handing a single family or group the entire top floor.

The gathering rooms

Everything starts in the living room. Deep sofas face the fire, the hot chocolate arrives without much prompting, and afternoons here have a habit of running longer than anyone intends. Guests who arrived as strangers tend to end up in the same conversation, which is roughly how the great travelling houses of the last century used to work.

“We wanted Saint Roch to be a place you come to as much for what you feel as for what you see. A place inspired by travel, where the encounters, the bond you form with a place and the memories you create there are what give hospitality its meaning.”

Kimberley Cohen, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Maisons Pariente

Dinner keeps the same unhurried pace. The restaurant is dimly lit with plenty of room between tables, so nobody feels rushed through a second bottle. The bar handles the stretch between the last run and the first course, all golden light and low seating, with cocktails mixed for balance and drinkers who stay past the hour they had planned. Children get a world of their own in the Kids Club, with their own space, their own pace and plenty to find in it.

The Spa

The spa borrows from Ottoman hammams and Caucasian palaces. Soft arches, richly veined marble, shades of ochre, rust and midnight blue. Mosaics and vaulted stone bring up the old caravan routes between the East and the mountains, an imagined stop on a long journey, carried up to altitude and left there. Come down after a day in sharp air and it works on you quickly.

Treatments come from Tata Harper, the American house known for high-performance natural skincare, whose botanically precise formulas are put to work here on tension and cold muscles. An indoor pool anchors the room, and the shower beside it is the detail worth pausing over, clad in a marble mosaic by Pierre Mesguich with every fragment of stone placed by hand. A light-filled fitness room finishes the floor, quiet and useful at either end of the day.

Skiing from the door

Courchevel 1850 has been the most coveted address in the French Alps for decades, and getting there remains easy. Geneva International Airport is roughly 90 minutes away, with Lyon, Chambéry, Grenoble and Annecy all within reach. The last stretch is part of the pleasure: a scenic drive up the mountain, a train to Moûtiers, or a private helicopter into the Courchevel Altiport, minutes from the door.

The house sits directly on the Bellecôte slope and opens straight onto the 3 Vallées, one of the largest ski areas in the world. An on-site ski shop handles equipment and fittings, so mornings begin without the usual hunt for boots. After that the concierge team builds the day around whoever is asking, whether that means dog-sledding through the forest, snowmobiling after dark, a helicopter over the peaks or dinner high on the mountain.

The wider collection

Patrick Pariente founded the group with his two daughters, and each house keeps a personality of its own while working from a single idea of hospitality: warm, attentive and human. Lou Pinet in Saint-Tropez, Crillon le Brave in Provence, Le Coucou in Méribel and Le Grand Mazarin in Paris came first. Saint Roch gives the collection its reading of mountain living.

Art runs through every property, with works drawn from the family’s private collection and chosen alongside leading curators. The same patronage funds the Prix Maisons Pariente, an annual competition backing emerging contemporary artists in France, with the winning works hung across the group’s houses.