If you're someone that likes cooking, you may find you want to spend as much time in this kitchen as you do anywhere else on your holiday. It is as fully equipped as any kitchen could be, and intelligently laid out to make each stage of cooking as simple as possible. There is a broad stone worktop for preparation. A seven-ring hob. A dual oven, griddle, grill, a plate-warmer. A central island to plate-up for ten with space to spare. Every extra you could think of.

Equally, if cooking isn't your thing or you fancy a night off, this is the perfect kitchen for one of our private chefs to really create an astonishing meal. Why not relax in the hot tub and let someone else do the work? Or sit and chat through the menu with the chef while sipping on a glass of wine?

From the terrace, end your day's skiing by watching the winter sunset flare pink on the mountain snow. Relax your entire body and sweat out the tension from your legs and feet in the zen-lit Hammam with internal shower. Laze through a long dinner sure in the knowledge that the kids are secure upstairs behind the wooden baby-gates. Celebrate or snooze round the fire before bed, or perhaps sneak out to the terrace in the gentle snowfall for a midnight. Then drift off to sleep, knwoing that when you wake, your clothes will be dry, your boots will be warm, your car will be safe from the snow, parked undercover just yards from the door.

Our concierge pack what's this? for Solid Oak includes fresh food for all of your party in the fridge when you arrive, and one evening of wine-tasting with our local sommelier from Chamonix's Cha Cha Cha, to be held in the chalet on whichever evening best suits your plans.

Highly recommended: Sit back and see what Solid Oak's amazing kitchen is capable of by hiring one of our private chefs for an evening of gourmet dining tailored to your specific taste. For more information or to organise any extras, just get in touch. contact us

Turning into the woods off a back road between Argentière and Chamonix, Solid Oak is what the French would call niché: hidden – though there is no missing it when you get there, and no forgetting it once you've been. It isn't grand or imposing, but Chalet Roux is impressive. It is truly beautiful, outside and in. It is perfect down to the minutest detail. It is the chalet you imagine in your head when you think about what your holiday should be like.

You pull into the covered parking under the huge terrace, and step out into the boot room. Drop your skis, hang your jacket. You're five yards from the Hammam. Up the staircase, you emerge in a full floor of open plan luxury. Past the spacious kitchen, you sit at the dining table for some bread and cheese. You ease onto the huge sofa that wraps around the fireplace, watch the news on the enormous television. You admire the sunset over a game of backgammon on the terrace. You relax in the outdoor hot tub with a chilled glass of champagne. However you picture your perfect holiday, Solid Oak is likely to have pictured it first.

Do not hesitate if you like your chalets in the traditional mould: Chalet Roux is matchless; if you like to cook: the kitchen is fabulous; if you are bringing children: the chalet is subtly but perfectly child friendly; if you want to experience everything exactly the way it should be: this is it.

Think again if you want something funky, or if your taste is for minimalism. Chalet Roux's elegance, though never excessive Savoyard kitsch, is distinctly alpine. There is no extravagance, no bling. No infinity pool. Though rarely a distraction outdoors and unnoticeable from inside, the chalet is not far from the train line or the road that joins Les Praz to Les Tines. Also, you are not walking distance from a bar (though we do offer a late-night private minibus).

Splitting the distance between Chamonix town and the incomparable skiing of Argentière's Grands Montets, Chalet Roux is situated on the verge of Les Bois, perhaps Chamonix's most beautiful and untainted area. With more than 2000m² of private land, there is plenty of space for a shaded stroll on a July afternoon - or a snowball fight on a crisp January evening.

The huge first-floor terrace takes in a panorama that, above the surrounding woodland, stretches from the rugged Index and Brévent peaks to the North, all the way around to Mont Blanc, the Aiguille du Midi, the Drus and the Verte to the south. Unbroken.

You will sit in comfort around the extensible dining table, sipping your aperitif just five yards from where your chef is dishing up. After a sumptuous dessert, move to the enormous sofa and array of armchairs that surround the roaring fire, put a DVD on the huge television, or play cards around the coffee table. Or spend a lazy summer evening sitting on the deck, the large stone table providing more than enough space to eat or drink or play games as the sun sets at the end of the valley.

The living space is never so small as to be cramped, never so large as to intimidating, with the entire middle floor in an open-plan design that feels spacious but remains cosy, that has no doors or walls but manages to divide up the spaces into distinct areas. It is difficult not to relax in Solid Oak.

The ten beds are split across four double rooms and one bunk room, each with its own subtle sense of style, while maintaining throughout the aged chic of the entire chalet. Each has ample storage space. Each is ensuite. Each has a television and DVD player. Each makes beautiful use of light. The two rooms on the sunken ground floor are just yards from the Hammam. Up the broad oak staircase, the top level rooms are joined by a balcony facing west toward the sunset. A communicating bathroom joins one double room to the kids' bunk, close enough to keep an eye on, far enough to escape the noise.