Authentic accommodation with character
Gorgeous self-catering apartments in our beautiful old farmhouse, Snowgums, on the edge of Briançon Serre Chevalier, in the southern French Alps.
We look forward to welcoming you to Snowgums!
Snowgums’ chalet and apartments
Snowgums’ apartments are renovated by local builders using environmental materials and traditional skills. Snowgums is proud to be ‘screen-free’! We have wifi throughout, but there are no tvs, big movie or game screens, so that holidays here are a chance to screen detox. Warmly and comfortably decorated to be a ‘home away from home’ the apartments offer:
- large, spacious apartments
- couple only discount (see conditions)
- family discount (see conditions)
- restaurants throughout the 16 villages of the valley
- optional delivered home-cooked French, Sri Lankan or English meals by local chefs
- free ski bus to main cable car of the valley
- up to 40% discount on ski hire
- ski boot/ drying room
- secure bike storage
- excellent showers
- two minutes to shops
- walks from the door
- dogs welcome add with prior agreement
- games cupboard for all ages!
Snowgums is our wonderful, renovated, old farmhouse on the edge of Briançon, on the Serre Chevalier side. We are a quirky chalet with heaps of character in a quiet village and with a large walled garden and huge field in front of the house, great for sledging in the winter, that runs down to the glacial Guisane river which you can hear from our garden. It is a great spot for families, visitors with dogs, and those who want a calm and tranquil holiday, and yet with the convenience of everything you need, shops, all facilities and two ski stations, Briançon and Chantemerle, within five minutes of the house.
The farmhouse was built around 1770, and has all the typical features of farmhouses in the area, four levels of vaulted ceilings, and beamed ceilings throughout all the other rooms, plus some unique features such as the beautiful wooden ceiling in the main room of apartment one, and the quirky ‘peek-a-boo’ hand holds in the beautiful old stairway.
From Snowgums’ garden you can hear marmot, cowbells, cuckoo, and owl. We leave the grass to grow as a wildflower meadow, each year bursting forth in layer after layer of colour, each time with flowers we haven’t seen before. In early summer there are a carpet of wild strawberries growing over the top half of the garden, and we have lots of different fruit trees and bushes, including raspberries, cherries, apples, plums, blueberries and redcurrants. Sometimes we have goats, sheep or even a horse and donkey, in to graze the garden. If you are very lucky you might see our resident hedgehog, Frank.
Children love playing in the garden, and the converted hay barn which is now a cool Club House/ Wendy House, whilst adults may prefer to use the BBQ to prepare dinner, relax with a glass of wine in the shade of the cherry trees, or enjoy the magnificent mountain views from the bench at the top of the garden.
With the renovation work at Snowgums we are blessed to be working with local artisans trained in conservation work on national monuments, using authentic traditional materials and techniques such as the local wood, larch, and lime for re-creating interior wall finishes. Wherever possible we re-use materials, such as old doors and beams, and source other materials and decoration for the apartments at vide grenieres (attic clearouts).
The apartments are a wonderful mix of practical modern convenience, such as wifi throughout, and plenty of hot water heated by all the sunshine we have here – 300 days a year!, and traditional wisdom, such as metre thick walls which keep you cool in the hot summers!
Snowgum is the name of the distinctive and beautiful eucalyptus tree that grows in the Australian high country, or Australian Alps. Skiing and hiking under snowgums, a unique experience, was the inspiration for the name of our old farmhouse, Snowgums, in the southern French Alps.
As featured in the Guardian “Travels with locals: 10 great B&B and guesthouse hosts around the world” October 2015
