Destinations

Alp Wanted

A French Chalet Full of Optical Illusions

None 7 Photos Mineral Lodge
Ah, the French Alps.

The breathtaking beauty. The winding trails. The invigorating feeling that you could get lost at any given moment within its dizzying mass.

And that’s just your chalet.

Find your center of gravity for Mineral Lodge, an ultramodern glass palace twisted into an architectural puzzle of winding stairs and secret nooks tucked high in the remote French Alps, taking reservations now.

It’s like M.C. Escher designed the Flintstones’ vacation home in there—just piles of gray stones wedged between sheets of floor-to-ceiling glass, disorienting slanted ceilings and a web of wooden stairs zigzagging from one corner of the place to another.

Your plan is to book it with a few friends when you’re sick and tired of anything resembling civilization. Go out on your balcony. Take in the view. Start exploring all those weird staircases. Climb up one, and you’re basking in a sauna. Climb up another, and you’re in a glass-enclosed breakfast nook. Head back down, and you’re in a stone archway leading you outside. Go through it. Then... keep walking.

Because, turns out, there’s a ski lift conveniently located three minutes from your doorstep. It’ll whisk you straight to Les Arcs, where you’ll lord over 24,000 acres of France’s finest piste.

You can also ski it.

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