This winter, Maisons Pariente opens the doors of Saint Roch, its fifth address in France and second in the Alps. Perched on the Bellecôte piste at the foot of the slopes and steps from the village centre, this alpine refuge offers a different way to experience the mountains – one where the intensity of the landscape gives way to the calm of the interiors, and the peaks meet a world inspired by Slavic dachas and ancient Persian kingdoms.
A longtime institution of the resort, this maison is reborn under a new identity. Created as a true winter home in the mountains, Saint Roch continues the Maisons Pariente tradition of creating places deeply rooted in their surroundings – every detail shaped by sisters Leslie Kouhana and Kimberley Cohen based on childhood memories. Here, the mountain isn’t put on display; it’s lived differently.
The architecture is the work of studio Friedmann & Versace – Virginie Friedmann and Delphine Versace – built on a subtle dialogue between heritage, craft and contemporary design. Their approach, precise and shaped by material, answers exactly what the place was meant to become: a lived-in interior where the architecture recedes just enough to make room for feeling. Wood, chosen for the full richness of its textures, plays against stone, textiles and touches of bronze, while soft light reveals the surfaces and draws out finer details. Folklore gives way to emotion; the references are sensed more than shown, like travel memories returning unbidden.
Inspired by the Eastern dacha, the interiors unfold in a hushed atmosphere of patinated surfaces, velvet and handcrafted objects – a warm, deeply lived-in décor where nothing is merely decorative. Each piece was gathered from around the world for what it evokes, not what it proves, so that influences answer one another without ever competing: a world within a world where cultures meet quietly rather than announce themselves.
The marks of time and travel are everywhere: the agate-stained glass by Atelier Toporkoff, the mosaic frescoes by Pierre Mesguich, and ceramics made by French artisans. The art collection, guided by Amélie Maison d’Art, follows the same instinct: twentieth century works beside contemporary pieces, bronze bas-reliefs alongside Persian glazed vases, so that Saint Roch becomes a habitable gallery.
Saint Roch has 37 rooms and suites arranged around shared spaces, each with its own character. Designed as true places to live, they invite guests to settle in rather than simply stay. From the Superior room to the Penthouse, every space shares the same language. Warm materials, subtle light and enveloping textures compose an atmosphere at once intimate and timeless. Wood, velvet and silk set a soft tone, while the furniture pairs bespoke designs with collected pieces, as in a collector’s home. Deep hues – tobacco brown, garnet red, moss green, midnight blue – combined with cashmere prints and delicate marquetry, extend a sense of inner journey, between alpine refuge and dreamed-of dacha.
With this opening, Maisons Pariente continues to build a collection in which every house asserts its own personality while sharing a single vision of hospitality: warm, sensitive and genuinely human. After Le Coucou in Méribel, Lou Pinet in Saint-Tropez, Crillon le Brave in Provence and Le Grand Mazarin in Paris, Saint Roch adds its own singular interpretation of the mountains: an alpine home for travellers who love to roam the world as much as the places that stay with them.
“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,” says Leslie Kouhana, President and co-founder of Maisons Pariente.
“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,” adds Kimberley Cohen, Artistic Director and co-founder of Maisons Pariente.
Because in the end, the finest memory of a stay isn’t only a run through fresh snow, but the feeling of having found a place guests leave already wanting to return.
