Food and Wine

A Visionary's Dream

It has been nearly a hundred years since the resort opened to tourism at the initiative of the highly visionary Baroness Noémie de Rothschild, who dreamed of creating a French St. Moritz. “It was right after World War I, and she was tired of running into Germans in Switzerland, champagne glass in hand,” recalls Édouard Apertet, a heritage guide. Megève has never stopped innovating: the first electric lighting, the first luxury hotel, perched on Mont d’Arbois, and in 1936, France’s first medal in alpine skiing, won by local boy Émile Allais. The international snow polo tournament and ice hockey followed. “Another figure we mustn’t forget is the parish priest Ambroise Martin,” notes Édouard Apertet. “As early as 1880, people were coming from all over France to pay their respects at the Calvary he had commissioned.” Designated a historic monument, its fourteen chapels and oratories dot the landscape like a rosary, attracting both day-trippers and lifelong visitors.

Jazz and Delights

Turks, Russians, Indians, Swiss, and French… Families and the “happy few” from all over the world flock today to the “sweet life” of Megève. At six o’clock, elegant ladies in light-colored mink coats settle into one of the horse-drawn carriages waiting on the Grand Place. A few streets away, a jazz melody plays. It’s the blissful hour of après-ski. Each (sumptuous) hotel has its own style and aesthetic. A cozy atmosphere and delightful tea time at Le George, the lounge of the legendary Mont-Blanc. Hunting trophies and log-paneled walls at the Lodge Park bar, where guests come to savor a Savoyard wine or a Pauillac while nibbling on foie gras and shrimp.