Chalet Les Cerises in Cordon: our break facing Mont Blanc
CONTENTS
Chalet Les Cerises in Cordon: our break facing Mont Blanc
The luxury of receiving
In Cordon, facing Mont Blanc, Laurent and Agnès Nodenot have envisioned much more than a chalet. A home where each stay becomes a succession of experiences crafted with infinite care. A haven where luxury is never measured by the exceptional nature of the place, but by the attention given to those who experience it.
There are houses that one remembers long after having forgotten the path that leads to them.
For a long time, I thought the most beautiful journeys were those that took us to extraordinary landscapes. Over time, I've come to understand that they have less to do with the places themselves than with the people who live there.
Because while mountains, cities, or coastlines sometimes fade into indifference in our memories, certain encounters continue to stay with us long after we return. They give a soul to homes. They transform a simple stay into a lifelong memory.
In the heart of summer, we left the sweltering heat of our Provence to head to the French Alps.
Board Cordon, a village in Haute-Savoie perched facing Mont Blanc, which is aptly nicknamed the balcony of Mont BlancHere, the mountain peaks seem to be part of everyday life. The inhabitants look at them with the same simplicity with which we contemplate vineyards or olive groves at home.
We had come looking for a bit of respite from the heat. A few days together. Time to celebrate our eldest daughter's twentieth birthday.
We thought we would discover a chalet.
We were mainly going to meet two people.
Laurent and Agnès Nodenot.
And to understand, without having anticipated it, that true luxury ultimately has very little to do with places.
Chalet Les Cerisesa house that tells the story of those who live in it
The large terraces open onto the mountain peaks.
The four suites where old wood interacts with a very soft contemporary decor.
The outdoor jacuzzi invites you to contemplate Mont Blanc until nightfall.
Home cinema.
The sauna.
Spaces designed to slow you down.
Everything is here.
And yet ...
Very quickly, you forget about the chalet.
Because everything comes back to those who give it its soul.
Laurent possesses the spontaneous generosity of people who deeply love to receive. He welcomes without protocol. Without pretense.
With a disarming simplicity that immediately breaks down barriers.
Alongside him, Agnès creates a quieter, more discreet presence.
But just as essential.
They seem to form a perfect balance.
One brings people together.
The other one is calming.
One of them gives rise to large family meals.
The other opens up spaces of silence.
Two ways to welcome.
Two ways to care.
The same philosophy.
This is not a chalet.
We are received into a house.
The luxury of slowing down
The first few hours immediately set the tone.
Nobody is talking to us about a program.
Even fewer activities.
Laurent simply invites us to live the cottage as if we were at home.
Having a coffee on the terrace.
Settle into the jacuzzi while the clouds drift gently past Mont Blanc.
Watching a movie as a family in the home cinema.
To read a few pages of a book without looking at the time.
Watch the children laugh.
Do nothing.
And to discover that this "nothing" has perhaps become the most precious of our luxuries.
For the past few years, our travels have become less and less like races against the clock. We no longer try to tick off destinations.
We are looking for places that make us want to stay. Chalet Les Cerises It belongs to this category. It reconnects us with an almost forgotten idea of travel: one where you have nothing to prove, nothing to show.
Simply the right to be together.
Silence as a luxury
Alongside the large tables and bursts of laughter, there is another side to the Chalet Les Cerises.
More discreet.
More interior.
The day after our arrival, Laurent suggested we experience something he had imagined with Agnès: a sound journey with Tibetan singing bowls.
We follow them to a room entirely paneled in wood, bathed in soft twilight. A few tatami mats. Cushions. Two mandalas hanging on the walls. The space naturally invites calm.
We lie down.
The lights gradually fade.
Then the first sound resounds.
It's impossible to really explain what happens next.
The vibrations seem to pass through the body before even reaching the ears. They circulate, move away, return, as if they were drawing an invisible landscape.
Time disappears.
Thoughts slow down.
We gradually stop wanting to understand.
We simply welcome what comes.
Agnès accompanies this moment with infinite discretion. She doesn't guide a meditation in the usual sense. She opens a space. A suspended time where each person is free to live their own experience.
Some will call it a sonic journey.
Others receive energy healing.
For my part, I prefer to keep the memory of a profoundly soothing moment, the effects of which continued to accompany me long after our return.
That evening, I understood that Laurent and Agnès were not just offering a stay.
They imagine experiments.
And that is precisely what makes this house so unique.
A summer raclette to celebrate twenty years of life
There are traditions that cannot be broken.
At our house, birthdays always mean homemade chocolate cake. The one I've been making since my daughters were little. The recipe has never changed. It's a family tradition, almost a ritual. Every year, it naturally finds its place in the middle of the table.
For our eldest daughter's twentieth birthday, another obvious choice became clear. She dreamed of raclette. Summer or winter, it's her favorite dish.
When we talked to Laurent about it, he didn't try to convince us that there was a more original idea for a July dinner.
He simply replied, with that characteristic smile of his:
Let me do it.
When the day came, he went up to 1 meters above sea level He personally selected the cheeses from local producers. He returned with a magnificent traditional raclette, but also an amazing truffle racletteAbsolutely divine.
In addition, there was a superb selection of artisanal charcuterie from Haute-Savoie.
Meanwhile, the potatoes were already cooking.
We simply set the table as a family. Then Laurent arrived, his arms laden with generously filled platters.
All we had to do was sit down. Facing Mont Blanc.
The sun was slowly beginning to disappear behind the hills.
The raclette grills were smoking quietly.
Large platters of charcuterie were passed from hand to hand. The cheese melted slowly. So did the conversations.
Laurent stayed for dinner with us. As if we had invited him to our home. A scene as improbable as it was delightful.
An evening that reflected our daughter.
Gentle.
Simple.
Greedy.
Surrounded by those she loves.
The chocolate cake arrived at the very end of the meal.
The same one I used to devour with relish as a child.
Still as eagerly awaited as ever.
And under the summer sky of Haute-Savoie, I had this thought.
Perhaps the best birthdays are simply those where we finally take the time to be together.
When a table becomes a memory
Our last evening at Chalet Les Cerises had a particular taste.
The one of those final moments that we would like to suspend a little longer.
For several days, Laurent had been discreetly preparing a surprise.
Around him, he had gathered those who, like him, shared a taste for beautiful things made with heart.
Craftsmen.
Enthusiasts.
Friends who became accomplices.
Then he looked at me with a smile.
"You have free rein when it comes to the table."
An infinitely precious trust.
Those who love to entertain know how much the art of dining tells the story of a home. Laurent understood this perfectly. By letting me imagine this final evening, he wasn't just entrusting me with a decoration. He was inviting me to write, with him, the final chapter of this Alpine interlude.
Very quickly, one thing became clear.
We didn't want to create a spectacular table.
We wanted to tell the story of a house.
A table that looks like the Chalet Les Cerises.
Alive.
Elegant.
Warm.
We deliberately left the wood exposed.
No tablecloth.
The material spoke for itself.
Collection Hemisphere de Flirtatiouswhose sculptural lines seemed to have been designed to interact with the alpine landscape.
The family silverware, carefully taken out of the cupboards and having belonged to Agnes' grandmother.
The towels of Chalet Les Cerisesdiscreetly stamped.
Then Isabelle, from The Crowned Mountainarrived with her flowers.
Immaculate hydrangeas.
Some grasses.
Light foliage.
Nothing demonstrative.
Simply a palette of whites and greens where each composition seemed to have naturally found its place.
I think that's what I liked best.
This restraint.
This quiet elegance.
Today, luxury no longer lies in accumulation. It lies in appropriateness.
Each element had a reason for being.
Each subject interacted with the others.
Wood.
Porcelain.
Money.
The glass.
Flowers.
Then Laurent asked us to look up.
Above our heads, the branches of the large walnut tree had transformed into a suspended sky. Dozens of candles seemed to float in the trees.
As night fell, the mountain gently disappeared while the light created an almost unreal atmosphere.
For a few seconds, no one spoke.
We were simply watching this scene.
It was as if time had just stood still.
And that's precisely what I love about the finest tables.
They are not just used for sharing a meal.
They become the setting for memories that will remain long after the plates have been put away.
The luxury of attention
At the golden hour, Laurent discreetly disappears into the kitchen. While we make the final adjustments to the table, he prepares dinner with the same concentration as a chef entertaining friends at home.
A few moments later, he returned with a selection of cocktails created especially for us. Before our arrival, he had taken the time to ask each of us about our preferences. A small detail. Or so it seemed.
Because it is precisely in these almost invisible gestures that, in my opinion, the true definition of luxury lies hidden.
Being received in a beautiful place is one thing.
Feeling expected of you is another.
Each cocktail tells a story of this attention to others.
Each dish that follows will be the same.
Laurent cooks the way he entertains.
With sincerity.
Without demonstration.
The flavors of Haute-Savoie follow one another naturally, always accompanied by a word, an anecdote, a smile.
Around the table, conversations become lively.
Glasses are raised.
The bursts of laughter echoed all the way up the mountain.
At that moment, I realize that nobody is looking at their phone.
Nobody thinks to photograph what is happening.
We are simply living in the moment.
And perhaps it has become the most beautiful of rarities.
Then the music took over
When dessert disappears, the evening could gently come to an end.
But Laurent hadn't given up yet.
His faithful accomplice, DJ Mika, takes his place behind the turntables.
In just a few minutes, the atmosphere changes.
The first notes resonate in the chalet.
Children are training adults.
Adults forget their age.
The generations mingle with disarming ease.
I watch this scene with tenderness.
A few days earlier, we were lying in silence, listening to Tibetan singing bowls. Now here we are, dancing together in a chalet facing Mont Blanc. This succession of emotions perfectly captures the essence of Chalet Les Cerises.
There is a time for SLOW DOWN.
A time for celebrate.
And a time for laugh until the end of the night.
Laurent and Agnès seem to instinctively know which one to offer their guests.
The look of
Madame C
We came to Cordon to celebrate a birthday.
We left with a much deeper reflection on what luxury means today.
For a long time, high-end hotels were defined by the number of stars, the size of the rooms, or the exceptional nature of the services offered.
These few days spent at Chalet Les Cerises reminded me that there is another definition.
More intimate.
More sensitive.
More profoundly human.
Luxury is perhaps simply the feeling of being expected. Of being listened to. Of being received with enough attention to feel that every detail has been thought out for you.
It is in a raclette prepared with the best producers in the valley because a young woman dreams of celebrating her twentieth birthday around her favorite dish.
It is a sonic journey that invites us to reconnect with ourselves.
It is on a table set under a walnut tree, where beauty is born from the simplicity of the materials and the talent of the artisans who make them interact.
It is in a cocktail designed with everyone's tastes in mind.
He's in a conversation that continues after dinner, as if you were catching up with old friends.
I firmly believe that we never truly remember places. We remember how they made us feel.
And if Chalet Les Cerises remains so present in our memories today, it is not solely because Mont Blanc graces every window.
That's because Laurent and Agnès have made hospitality a true art of living.
They do not offer a stay.
They create memories.
And this is probably the most beautiful definition of luxury we have encountered in recent years.
Chalet les Cerises
One summer evening
under the walnut tree
Images by Laurent Nodenot,
Camille Marchal & Clémentine Marchal
The Diosaz Gorges
Wedding Suppliers
of Chalet les Cerises
Because a journey never ends at the doorstep, Laurent shares with each of his guests the addresses that make his region truly come alive. Hidden restaurants, artisans, producers, walks, wellness experiences, charming villages, and hiking trails… A guidebook crafted with the same generosity that guides his hospitality.
For our first stay, we deliberately chose to fully enjoy Chalet Les Cerises, with only two excursions: the spectacular Gorges de la Diosaz and a stroll through the narrow streets of Megève. The rest of our time was devoted to what truly mattered: being together. A valuable travel lesson, ultimately.
To explore further this valley that Laurent describes with such passion.
Find all the recommendations for Chalet Les Cerises here:
www.chaletlescerises.fr/louer-chalet-montagne-alpes-cordon
Photo credits – @clementine.marchal © Laurent Nodenot & @camille_marchal_
Find all our addresses on the Mapstr app
go.mapstr.com/clementine.
Find all the stories from this trip on our editor's Instagram account @clementine.marchal
See more...
If you enjoyed reading this article, you might also like:
EDITORIAL CONTENT
This article is the subject of a partnership with Chalet les Cerises. Each blog partner is carefully selected to present readers with cutting-edge professionals who are in line with the blog's high-end editorial line.
For 18 years, we have been highlighting the wedding industry that we are passionate about on a daily basis. If you would like to participate in the development of the blog and join our team of partners, we invite you to visit our page TO BECOME PARTNER and contact us via the contact form.
Selection of the editorial staff
-
Cyrillus Maison – Large “Perle” Fruit Bowl
75.90 € Buy on cyrillus.fr -
Westwing – Colorado Decorative Embossed Wine Glasses, 4 Pieces
23.99 € Buy on Westwing.fr -
The components – Fire of Life candle
50.00 € Buy on sezane.com -
Cyrillus – Ceramic cutlery set (24 pieces)
89.90 € Buy on cyrillus.fr -
Cyrillus – Pearl Bowl (set of 6)
65.90 € Buy on cyrillus.fr -
Cyrillus – Perle dessert plate (set of 6)
85.90 € Buy on cyrillus.fr -
Cyrillus – Pearl Flat Plate (set of 6)
99.90 € Buy on cyrillus.fr -
SALE!
French Ruffled Linens – Striped Linen Ruffled Placemat
The initial price was: €49.95.14.99 €The current price is: €14.99. Buy on etsy.com -
Sabre Paris – Bistro Table Cutlery Set of 4
43.00 € Buy on printemps.com -
Sabre Paris – Icon 4-Piece Cutlery Set
66.50 € Buy on printemps.com -
Sézane Maison – Appolline Heart Mug
30.00 € Buy on sezane.com -
Components – Canto Candle
55.00 € Buy on sezane.com
