Chalet Grand Torsai, Val d'Isere, France

It is slightly beyond and above La Couchire (forty-five seconds beyond, to be precise, along the same underground passages, and fifty steps above, though with the ski locker and boot warmers sensibly at the bottom).

Fornet cable car 50m from front door, pistes 100m, bus 10m.

If you have already read the description of neighbouring chalet La Couchire, you’ll have read all about what a great place Le Fornet is. In a nutshell, the highest and emptiest pistes, the best powder, the Pissaillas Glacier with its exhilarating blue and red runs, and much of the area’s off-piste are all reached via the cable car, two minutes from this chalet. So are two of the best mountain restaurants, the Signal and Edelweiss, as well as the brand new La Cascade restaurant up on the glacier. The hamlet of Le Fornet itself is the prettiest part of Val d’Isère, and has more excellent restaurants.

Should you wish to go into the village centre, to the nursery slopes or the shops, the free bus stops just outside the chalet until after midnight, and you can reach the nursery slopes or nightlife as fast as people staying in the village centre.

Grand Torsaï is around eight years old, really pretty and very pleasantly finished. Two of its five bedrooms are admirably compact, but with enormous sliding windows and wonderful views. The other bedrooms have more space and great views, but only normal-sized windows. All have smart bathrooms. Down one floor are the sauna and the indoor hot tub shown in our rotating pictures.

The split-level sitting-dining room is the heart of the chalet, in particular the large square dining table and the vast picture windows. Romantics appreciate the sunniest views in Val d’Isère, stretching from dawn over the Galise, on the border with Italy, to dusk beyond Bellevarde. Non-romantics can log onto the web via WiFi or watch a DVD.

• Balcony facing east, south and west.
• DVD player
• LCD TV
• Sauna
• Indoor hot tub
• Ski room with boot warmers.
• WiFi.
• A chef and an assistant, who live downstairs.

Breakfast consists of fruit juice, porridge, cereals, bacon, eggs, baguettes straight from the famous local bakery, a croissant or pain au chocolat if you like, yogurt, Twinings tea and fresh coffee from Italian espresso pots.

You return from the slopes to find bread and jam, a freshly-baked cake, hot chocolate etc. left out for you.

Then canapés 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.

With dinner, we serve free unlimited quantities of a selection of very drinkable French AOC wines and vins de pays. This is, unfortunately, only with dinner, not breakfast, and we stop serving the wine when the coffee appears.

Please note that the use of the sauna/hot tub in Chalet Grand Torsaï is at your own risk (and that of your party members). We cannot accept responsibility for any accidents/injuries that occur during the use of the sauna and/or hot tub. Children must be supervised when using either facility.

Damage deposit for all bookings.