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With unexpected horse shows, scenic hiking opportunities and kids camps, Megève was the perfect summer destination for Ireland-based Homeowners Paula, Paul, and their daughter. In a recent conversation with August, Paula shared how her family’s first stay in the Picholines Signature Collection transformed their family time.
I'm Paula, my husband is Paul, and we have an 11-year-old daughter. We live in Dublin, Ireland, and we started considering holiday home ownership during COVID. I read a very interesting article about August in the Irish Times, and I thought it would be lovely to own all those homes. I thought for our daughter - being an only child - it might not work as they were stand-alone homes, that maybe we should buy within a resort where there would be other children.
We explored other options in terms of buying an apartment in a development and came very close a couple of times, but realised that we didn't want to be limited to one place or have the burden of trying to manage a property from abroad and the hassle of all that, and so we gave up the idea. Then, back in 2022, I thought about August again, came back to that option, and started to explore it. I gave Rory (August's Sales Manager) a call, and we went from there. It just felt right at that time.
Now that my daughter is older, we realise that as she enters her teenage years, she'll be able to bring friends with her on holidays. We also thought about it more long term for ourselves, as we're not getting younger! Our daughter's starting secondary school this time next year, so in six years when she is in University, we'll be free and able to holiday ourselves a little bit more. So it's a long-term strategy on our part as well.
Our first experience of August was in Megève, in the first two weeks of July. We had two weeks booked in Megève, followed by two weeks in Mallorca this year (2024), so we had a four-week holiday, which was amazing. Megève is just so beautiful in the summertime. We didn't really know what to expect when going to the Alps in the summer. We knew that the weather would be unpredictable (which it was!). We had many sunny days, rainy days, and thunderstorms.
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The house was just beautiful when we walked in. It was all new, we were only the second or third Homeowners to have experienced it. It's so beautifully done; everything you need is there. I was blown away by everything that was in the kitchen. You could literally throw an event, a party, or a wedding, and there were so many things in the kitchen to host people. Location-wise, it's right in Megève, so it's right in the town - which is so stunning and beautiful.
I was taken aback by the friendliness and warmth of people in the mountains but it's also very sophisticated. We were there early in the summer, so the French children weren't on vacation yet. It was very quiet, and there weren't many children around, but fortunately, we had booked our daughter into a one-week camp. We didn't know how that would be, but it turned out to be the best thing ever.
She was out with a load of kids all day. There were children from London and the States, mostly French children, but a lot of them were bilingual. Her little friend from the States was bilingual. She was able to do a lot of translating, but Sandrine (who ran the camp) was incredibly professional. Many of the camp supervisors were teachers, too, so they were very experienced with kids, and she had a great time.
One of the nights, she camped out overnight up the mountains! They had donkeys take their gear up the mountains where they put the tents for the night. So she had a fantastic time and we had a great time hiking while she was doing that, it gave us more freedom to go on hikes, which were beautiful, and the weather was just ideal for it.
Then the house is located beside Le Palais, (the largest leisure complex in the French Alps), so there's an absolute multitude of sports available. Next year, we're going the first week in August. It will be nice to see what other activities are delivered in the Palais when there are more French families there. The other great find was an international horse show, and it was free every day!
I suppose it's a very different experience. We have been to Chamonix in the wintertime for skiing, as Paul and our daughter ski. I don't, so I've tried to get into snowshoeing and hope to do that in Megève next February.
I just think Megève is so beautiful as a town. It's much quieter than the other resorts, and probably much older. We went over to Chamonix one of the days to go shopping, and it was busy. Whereas Megève was very quiet, so I'm glad that we're in Megève for that. From a snow perspective, Paul was saying he might have to drive over to Chamonix to get the higher slopes in the wintertime, as you might not get the same level of snow in Megève. However, it's only a half-hour drive away, so he's not too concerned about that.
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I should also say we went to Lake Annecy one day in the summer, too. So that was lovely. We sat out in the sun, and then they did some stand-up boarding on the lake. Lake Annecy is about an hour away, so there's so much to do in winter and summer. The downside is we did get quite a lot of rain this summer, probably a little bit more than normal. Out of the 14 days, we had seven days of rain and seven nice days, but what is nice about it is it's not really hot like Mallorca can be. If you're trying to holiday in July and August, as we have to at the moment, it can just be so hot in the Mediterranean.
Very. It's very near the ski slope, you can walk down to the ski slope from the house. It's right in town! It's a five-minute walk, but not right in the town centre. It's convenient if you need to drive to a supermarket, and as I said, you have a lot of ski resorts within half an hour of there, which is ideal if you want to vary your skiing or hiking. Chamonix is a big area for hiking as well, which is why it was so busy in the summer.
I just loved the quietness and peacefulness of Megève during the summer, so that was really, really pleasant, but it's incredibly convenient. Then you've got the Palais right beside you, so you've got the gym in there to work out, and you can buy tickets for two weeks and just go in when it suits. Because it's a public municipal facility, it's not expensive. I'm intrigued to see it in the winter as they have ice hockey in there and ice skating, so all of that will be available when we go in February.
Well, you need your rain gear! I hope that doesn't put anybody off, but take a good, packable Gore-tex jacket and really good hiking boots. Then a long rain jacket that you'd have at home for walking uptown. You still need shorts, but it cools in the evening, so pack a light, padded jacket and your jeans. It's very casual, with an element of very dressed-up, sophisticated French ladies, but it's mostly casual. I went very, very casual. Most people, if they're there in the summer, they're there to go hiking, and they're there for outdoor activities like mountain biking, which is also big in Megève.
The day we arrived, there was a mountain biking competition. They were just shutting that down in the big parking area, and that's when they built the horse-jumping stadium. So there were mountain bikes everywhere, and then they were all gone the next day, and the guys were erecting this amazing stadium for horse-jumping. It was all going on when we were there!
Yes, there's a lovely little bakery around the corner as well. It's very French, so we'd send our daughter down to get the bread in the morning, two minutes from the front door!
Oh, definitely. That was the highlight for her. For that reason, she had more fun in Megève than she had in Mallorca, and she would definitely go back. In fact, Sandrine - who owns the company (Le Trapper) - also does skiing in the winter. So we're going to sign her up with Le Trapper for the week in February.
We travel the same amount, but it is a different experience. Before our daughter was born, my husband and I would tend to go to places like Canada or Vietnam or more active holidays. We both like sailing, for example. Then, when she was born, it became more about where we could be with other children around, where our daughter could have fun, and where there were kids' camps and organised activities.
But for us, it is lovely to be able to immerse ourselves in the culture of an area and feel a bit more like it's home and to get out and about as opposed to just sitting on a beach or beside the pool all the time.
I think that's a really positive element, especially for our daughter as she gets older when she can bring a friend with her in her teenage years, and they can go down the town in Megève, and they can go around Artà (Mallorca). They're very nicely self-contained places. We're going to Valbonne for the midterm in October for Halloween. I'm really excited about that. I'm dying to see that house as it just looks spectacular, and I love the south of France.
To explore the French Alps in the summer and beyond, connect with a member of August's Advisory Team today.
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