Lovers of winter sports and linen tablecloths – and red carpets, white gloves, polished copper, shiny marquetry, velvet upholstery and all the other trappings of a train luxury – to be happy. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) has launched a 21-hour route once a year from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice in the heart of the French Alps.
The options for getting to the slopes from Great Britain by train are limited to say the least. There is the Eurostar Snow Train, which runs once a week in season and requires a change in Lille, and there is the regular Eurostar to Paris, followed by a TGV.
The new route, which runs at the end of December, offers a third option and reflects a growing enthusiasm for slow, green and experiential travel. Traveling by plane from Great Britain to the French Alps takes about two hours and generates at least 250 kg of CO2. The train takes more than eight hours, but emits less than 12 kg of CO2.
However, it is the experience that sets the VSOE apart – and even puts it in a class of its own. And with the rate for an upper compartment for two at just £10,000 per person, you’d hope so.
It’s a glorious return to a way of travel that has become so unknown that it has become new again. So old fashioned that it is old fashioned. Consider the historically authentic Heritage Cabins. They are beautiful. Jewel-like wonders with a thoughtful, elegant design. But small.
Starters are often surprised. (“Really? That’s it? And no shower? And a shared toilet at the end of the car?”) Hence the popularity of the recently introduced Suite and Grand Suite categories, which are about two and three times larger, respectively, than Heritage Cabins, and have their bathrooms. I’ve traveled in each of the three categories and can tell you that any extra space in your compartment makes a disproportionate difference. Most VSOE routes, like this one, are overnight routes, with a handful of exceptions, including Paris to Istanbul, which takes five nights.
I started with a night in Paris, arriving via Eurostar. Due to the carefully staged nature of the entire VSOE performance, the pros and cons of the holiday may suffer. Not on this occasion, however. I got off absolutely fine at Plaza Athénée (dorchestercollection.com). Although the hotel is famous for its flower boxes full of red geraniums (apparently the happy result of Marlene Dietrich’s affair with Jean Gabin), the courtyard was no less delightful in wintertime, like an ice skating rink illuminated by great cascades of Christmas lights hung from the roofs. Combine that coup of the theater with a lavish Second Empire-style suite, a treatment at the opulent new Dior Spa and dinner at Jean Imbert au Plaza Athénée and I could almost have sat there and forgotten about the Alps altogether.
But the mountains were calling. The train left the Gare de l’Est at 3:20 PM. A few hours later we were somewhere in the Champagne region, following the course of the Marne River at dusk. I raised a glass of fizz to the terroir outside from which it had emerged. The sky and water were silver blue, the rest of the landscape shadowed and indistinct. Soon it would be dark. The windows of the train would turn into mirrors, the sun blinds would be drawn.
I remembered an earlier trip from Paris to Venice in the summer. It felt very different – more, I think, because of the season than the route. We were encouraged in advance to jump out of bed at dawn to admire the sun as it rose over – or rather between and around – the Alps. Of the early birds who showed up around 5 a.m., several were in pajamas. Somehow this added more to the cheerful tone of the occasion than all the tuxedo jackets and sequined party dresses from the night before combined.
This winter trip was necessarily more tucked up and inward-looking, but no less cozy. There is only one service, the week before Christmas, and it is the last run of the year for the VSOE. Staff were excited to go home for the holidays, while passengers were excited to spend the holidays away from home, some in Chamonix, others in Courchevel and Val Thorens. The excitement increased as we went further into the mountains – and was reflected in the expressions on the faces of local commuters unaccustomed to seeing the shiny blue carriages gliding past their platforms.
It seemed like everyone on the train was singing almost the entire time. Even the chef. Jean Imbert, the befuddled French prodigy who succeeded Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée in 2022, was recruited the following year to oversee the VSOE kitchen. For that reason I chose to stay at Plaza Athénée: I wanted to compare Imbert’s hotel and the train kitchen. But the result of my wonderful experiment was inconclusive. Dinner in the luxurious, lavishly mirrored dining car on the train was just as satisfying as dinner in the luxurious, lavishly mirrored dining room of the hotel. (On the train: leek with black truffle, egg yolk and parmesan shortbread; Bresse chicken with Albufera sauce; hazelnut and coffee Yule log. In the hotel: brioche with caviar; lobster à l’américaine; plum soufflé pancakes.)
“The problem with cooking at the hotel,” Imbert said, “is that I have everything I could ever need at my disposal. The problem with cooking on the train is that I didn’t do it.” That must be the only aspect in which the VSOE applies a ‘less-is-more’ policy.
I got off at 11:38 am at Moûtiers, the gateway to the gigantic Trois Vallées ski area. A short drive took me to Méribel, a most endearing resort. I traded my gently rocking suite for stationary luxury on the slopes and laid down at Le Coucou (lecoucoumeribel.com). The ski-in/ski-out location couldn’t be improved; the staff was young and friendly; the appearance of the hotel is simultaneously respectful of the context and endearingly playful.
No one needs a reason to take the Venice-Simplon Orient Express. But if you did, it would be just as good a reason to come to Méribel for Christmas and New Year in incomparably beautiful style.
Essentials
The next Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (0800 058 1237; belmond.com) departure for the French Alps is on December 19, 2024. Depart Paris Gare de ‘Est at 3:20 PM and stop in Albertville (10:36), Moûtiers (11:38) and Bourg-Saint-Maurice (12:45 ) . Prices start at £3,785 per person, based on two people sharing a historic hut; £7,300 per person for a suite; and £9,975 per person for a Grand Suite.
This includes a 24-hour personal steward, meals accompanied by the sommelier’s choice of wine, unlimited soft drinks, coffee and tea, and transfers within Paris to Gare de l’Est. Grand Suite guests can also enjoy a check-in service, champagne and caviar upon arrival in the Alps.
Steve King was a guest at the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Méribel Tourisme and Hôtel Le Coucou.