Turning a mid-century Verbier apartment block into something that felt genuinely alive was the central challenge the Experimental Group set themselves when they took over and relaunched the property now known as Experimental Chalet Verbier. The Paris-based hospitality collective, which built its reputation on the Experimental Cocktail Club bars before expanding into hotels in Ibiza, Paris, and the Cotswolds, brought in their trusted design collaborators to work against the grain of the chalet vernacular — keeping the dark timber balustrades and pitched rooflines of the existing four-storey building while injecting the interiors with a palette drawn more from Left Bank bistros than Valais mountain lodges. The rooms pitch forest-green velvet headboards with gold-framed Alpine oil paintings and deep crimson curtains against mauve carpet and pale yellow cabinetry — a combination that sits closer to a well-curated Parisian apartment than any conventional ski hotel. Frenchie Verbier, the in-house restaurant helmed by chef Gregory Marchand, carries an terracotta-lacquered ceiling, ikat-upholstered banquettes, and antler chandeliers above dark timber dividers with arched openings — the effect hovering pleasantly between apres-ski warmth and urban brasserie confidence. Downstairs, the nightclub retreat into raw larch panelling washed in deep red neon, Dom Pérignon buckets on low round tables completing a mood that the Experimental Group has made entirely its own across their properties. The Swiss flag visible from the terrace outside remains, it seems, the only straightforwardly conventional detail on the facade.

2hr 30min drive from Geneva airport (GVA); 3hr 10min drive from Milan Malpensa airport (MXP)

The Experimental Chalet opens its doors in the heart of Verbier and offers 39 rooms and suites, a signature cocktail bar, a restaurant by the renowned Parisian chef Gregory Marchand (Frenchie), the legendary Farm Club and a spa by Biologique Recherche.