Juniper

Chalets Juniper, Jasmine and Jacaranda are spread across the top two floors of the delightfully retro three-star Résidence le Grizny, with Juniper occupying the whole upper floor.

The building is unusually spacious and solid, having been built before Val d’Isère’s narrow valley started running out of space. And its position is really good: the village centre is four minutes’ walk away, the ski buses stop nearby, and it is possible to ski home. Although the front door is conveniently close to the main road, the bedrooms are further along the building, towards the silent forest on the slopes of Solaise. Nearly all of them have deep east-facing balconies with impressive views of mountains, trees and snow, and noise is never a problem, unless it's you making it!

Juniper has nine bedrooms, ranging from cosy to very large, six bathrooms and separate, sizeable sitting and dining rooms. Two of the cosier rooms are discounted £40 per person per week (rooms 14a & b), while the smallest of all, 14c, has a very special deal: its double bed is sold as a single bed, but if you can inveigle someone into sharing it, they pay half price.

Juniper’s atmosphere is always fun. It tends to appeal to relaxed people, perhaps because from the outside the building looks a bit like a municipal library, or because with six bathrooms for up to eighteen people it doesn't attract the sort of guests who spend from tea-time to dinner-time trying to make themselves beautiful (it isn't normally long enough!). Or maybe anyone uptight is put off by those technicolour baths and basins. But however convivial the dining and sitting rooms become, guests can escape into the quiet of their own rooms, most of which are a good size - see room dimensions opposite. There is no TV (imagine trying to get 17 or 18 people to agree on what to watch?), but there is WiFi.