Cooking at Le Planet is a homely experience. The kitchen has everything you need without bewildering you with twenty-piece knife sets or patronising you with magic bottle openers. The extras here are actual cooking accessories: pots and jars, herbs and spices, the things you would find in a real kitchen, because this is a real, fully functioning kitchen. It is perhaps not the place to produce a twelve course gourmet degustation (though our private chefs may differ on this point!), but it is just the kitchen for a good old English roast. Or step through the door to the covered terrace, and make the most of the full-size Weber gas barbeque.

For all Le Planet is traditional and homely, it is not devoid of modern comforts. You can drop your boots on the heated rack as you get in from your day, then take some time to ease-off in the ambient-lit three-person sauna, or in the sound-system equipped outdoor hot tub that looks over the depth of the garden. Or curl up with a book from the excellently stocked bookshelves. There is a large DVD and music collection. If you need somewhere to hide the kids, the downstairs playroom is armed with a games console.

The most notable features, though, are the huge garden itself – with sledging versions of blue runs and reds – and the tranquillity. Le Planet is not in town. It is not even out of town. It is out of town, up the valley, off the road, at the end of a short track which, with a bit of snow, you could ski down. If you're driving out, you'll want to bring the Land Rover.

A stay in Le Planet includes our standard concierge pack what's this? – a particular highlight being the wine-tasting: sipping a selection of fine vintages on the deck, looking down the valley at the setting sun is an unforgettable moment.

Strongly recommended: Two of our optional extras fit very well with Le Planet. One of our transport packs will make getting to and from Le Planet a much easier proposition, and our daily fridge-filling service will remove a significant hassle, given that the nearest supermarket is a decent drive away, and is not the best supermarket you have ever seen. Let us do your shopping for you down in Chamonix during the day, or ask us about options to go fully-catered. Give yourself more time for sledging, for hot-tubbing, for snowman building.

Standing on the track that leads down to the chalet there is an almost tangible stillness and tranquility. A stoic building sat solid at the head of its domain, lines of mountain peaks drawing your gaze down the length of the Chamonix valley. There is a pervading sense of poignancy, almost of pathos. In a way, you feel you are looking at history.

As you step across the doorway the first thing you'll notice is the smell, the scent of cooking, ash from the fire. You'll be enveloped by the hazy warmth, by the sense of being somewhere that is truly lived in, a home that has cared for its family for decades. The chalet has a peaceful, spacious, timeless beauty that can't be designed or bought, that can only be grown. You have an odd and immediate sense that you have always lived there. You will wish you lived there. You will never want to leave.

Do not hesitate if you want something homely: this is a family home; if you have children: the garden is enormous, the downstairs is a perfect play-space; if you want privacy with a view: Le Planet has it like nowhere else; if you want to fall in love with where you're staying: you will.

Think again if you want modern: Le Planet isn't; if you want to walk home from the bar: the shortest way home is about 30 minutes, uphill (though you could take a transport pack or at Le Centrale it's 30 seconds); if you want ensuite rooms and a hotel feel: Le Planet has neither though the hideaway does...

If you head up the valley, Le Planet is, effectively, at the end of the road. It is in every way a different Chamonix to the one you would see staying in town: instead of being squeezed by huge, humbling peaks on either flank, at Le Planet you are on a raised plateau, the chalet's dignified gaze cast calmly down the valley. Mont Blanc and the Midi are less imposing, more visible, in a different relief. The suddenly impressive Aiguilles Rouge sit at your right hand. You are at an altitude high enough to keep snow through the whole winter. And at your feet is a private snowfield, a full acre of property at the centre of which is a converted farmhouse which has for generations been home to the same family.

As with every other aspect of Le Planet, the only word you really need is 'cosy'. It is in a similar format to a lot of chalets, a spacious open-plan mid level combining kitchen, dining area, and sofa space – but here it is snug in a way you could only achieve through years of use. It will work for you because it has worked for generations. The sofa you sit on will not feel comfy because it has just been flown in from Dudgeons of Knightsbridge – it will feel comfy because it has been there, feeling comfy, since time began. Nothing is pristine. You will feel at home because you are at a home.

The bedrooms are tremendous. Three downstairs, three up, sleeping fourteen in total. There are two top-floor balconies, but there is no mind-blowing master suite, no flashy modern trimming. The three lower-floor rooms have just been repainted in cosy neutrals, but you won't stop cold when you see them. You won't be tempted to take a picture of these rooms. But you will want to sleep in them. The whole downstairs is like a den. Upstairs the rooms have odd angles, snug corners, the walls and beams wrap around you like a hug. You will sleep well.