The Rothchilds
After WW1, Baroness Noémie de Rothschild was a frequent visitor to St Moritz, but didn’t get on with the German aristocracy. So much so that she decided to establish a ski resort in France and bought a huge area of land in Megève. Together with her husband, Maurice de Rothschild, she built the Mont d'Arbois in 1921, a luxury hotel equipped with an ice rink. More chalets followed and she went on to create the first cable car in 1933, an airfield and an 18-hole golf course.
By the 1950’s Megève was one of the most popular ski resorts in Europe and attracted many wealthy individuals and celebrities, including Jean Cocteau, Sacha Distel, Charles Aznavour and Brigitte Bardot. It features in the 1963 film Charade, where Audrey Hepburn's Regina Lampert meets Cary Grant's character and is still the playground of the rich and famous.
Henry Jacques Le Même
Architect Henry Jacques Le Même came to Megève in 1926 and one of his first commissions was to build Chalet Noemie for Baroness de Rothschild. His design was based on a typical Savoyard farmhouse, which he transformed for contemporary use. The ground floor housed the skis and cars, the first had the living rooms, with an extensive balcony, and the top floor had the bedrooms. He went on to build more than 200 chalets like this and, as a result, created a stylistic unity for the town.
Top right: Megève in autumn; bottom left, a few weeks later, Megeve in winter; entre Calvary crosses