DECEMBER 2018/JANUARY 2019

THE HEROIC LIFE & DEATH OF A FEARLESS HOLIDAY

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE REPORTER STARRING PARTY DRESS CODE ROSAMUND MANIFESTO PIKE ARE BOYS SCHOOLS GIFTS TO FOR YOUR BLAME? FAVORITE GLUTTONS, GRINCHES THE

INCORPORATING CONNOISSEUR WILD & CARD SNOBS INSIDE

CMG

08833 FOX

DEC 2018/JAN 2019 NEWS

DEC/JAN 2019 $6.99 OUT & ABOUT DESTINATIONS

SNOW BUSINESS The family has long been a presence in Megève, . Left: Baron Edmond de Rothschild on a run in 1963. Below: The Four Seasons Megève.

and Rothschild headed down Mont- d’Arbois to a vintage furniture boutique and brought back a pair of Tibetan chairs from the 1950s in wild, hairy sheepskin. “Now it’s a little more as though you’re at home rather than at a Four Seasons,” Rochon admits. (Later they had an hour- long row over teaspoons.) This will be the hotel’s second full winter season, so they’re pulling out all the stops. Case in point: Guests will be allowed to ride in France’s premier calèche avec assistance (a horse carriage with an electric motor). Of course, the Rothschilds are not the first people to set up shop in Megève. In the 1960s the town was one of Europe’s first modern ski resorts, full of celebrities and aristocrats; you might recognize it from the opening scene of the 1963 film Charade, in which Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant are chatting on a snowy ter- ROTHSCHILDS ON ICE race at the Chalet du Mont-d’Arbois. That In the French Alps, a great European family hotel still exists—it was, in fact, part of heads downhill. By Paige Darrah the Rothschilds’ original estate, just 275 yards from the house where Ariane and he resident Bouvier Bernois at give us their notes,” Ariane says over lunch Benjamin spend winter holidays with their the Four Seasons Megève has the in New York. “Very quickly we said, ‘Let’s four daughters. Tsame name as President Emmanuel skip the feedback.’ ” Does rolling a Four Seasons into town Macron’s dog, Nemo, but it wasn’t the The baroness teamed up with interior diverge from Baroness Noémie’s desire president who began the trend. “Macron designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, who is cur- to escape the St. Moritz buzz? With just copied us,” says . “I rently overhauling the Beverly Hills Wal- 55 tasteful rooms, absolutely not. Indeed, need to invite him here.” dorf Astoria. He’s instilling a masculine despite the upscale lodging and well- Thehere in question is Megève, a resort feel with caramel herringbone couches in heeled admirers, the village hasn’t become town in the French Alps where the Baron- guestrooms and 1970s-style rugs in soft oppressively posh or showy. And it’s still ess de Rothschild has recently opened the shades of brown lining the hallways. “I a great place to be a Rothschild. As the Four Seasons, her first hotel. It’s a property drew the rugs based on what Noémie’s­ baroness notes, “No photographers bother that has been a long while in the making. architect Henry-Jacques Le Même did you in the street.” FROM $1,000 PER NIGHT, FOUR In the 1920s, an earlier baroness, Noémie­ with tiles,” Rochon says. For Bar Edmond, SEASONS.COM/MEGEVE de Rothschild, who lived in Geneva, Ariane and Rochon decided came to find traveling to the overexposed to highlight one color: cham- St. Moritz tiresome. Her ski instructor pagne. The bar itself is made suggested Megève, a 13th-­century village of glass tubes etched to look with Mont Blanc for a backdrop only an like aspen trees, champagne hour’s drive from Geneva. light glowing through them. Three generations down the line, Ari- The process wasn’t ane—or Madame, as she is referred to by entirely without hiccups. nearly everyone—has just opened the first A week before the Four Four Seasons in Europe with direct access Seasons Megève opened, in to the slopes; she oversaw the design and December 2017, Ariane real- selected the craftsmen, from glassblowers ized she didn’t like the living to walnut whittlers. While Four Seasons room. “I was like, ‘Pierre- operates the hotel, Ariane and her hus- Yves, this is perfect. It’s too band Benjamin de Rothschild fully own it. perfect.’ I said, ‘You have to

“At the beginning, Four Seasons wanted to go a bit crazy.’ ” So Rochon SEASONS (HORSE CARRIAGE) KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES (ROTHSCHILD); RICHARD WAITE/FOUR T&C DECEMBER 2018/JANUARY 2019 54