Ski in, ski out at Courchevel’s hot new piste-side diner

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac has long been a master collaborator. Current artistic director for the United Colors of Benetton men’s and women’s collections, the tirelessly playful, Casablanca-born fashion designer and unstoppable pop artist has, down the decades, worked with Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Malcolm McClaren, Robert Mapplethorpe and Keith Haring, as well as Lady Gaga and MIA. His famous Teddy Bear coat (actually made of teddy bears) was worn by Madonna. He once created a Donald Duck costume for Rihanna.

In the hospitality sphere, he’s known for his ongoing collaboration with entrepreneur Gilles Malafosse and chef Benoit Dargère on Loulou, a series of hyper-hip French restaurants.

Loulou goes to the mountains, at Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges Courchevel

Inspired by Yves Saint Laurent’s blue-blooded muse, Louise ‘Loulou’ de la Falaise (aka the ‘quintessential Rive Gauche haute bohémienne’), the first Loulou diners were at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and beachside at Ramatuelle, on the Côte d’Azur. Now, Loulou is in the French Alps too, finding a ski-in/ski-out destination at the Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges Courchevel.

This latest Loulou outpost is a cosy, woody, piste-side delight, de Castelbajac's cute illustrations adorning everything from the menu to the sugar pots, napkins, tablecloths and cigar rests. Even the restaurant’s signature amuse-bouche – a warming, pre-lunch clear broth – is served in a Castelbajac-designed bottle that nods to Ricard’s classic glass receptacles of the 1970s.

‘My brother [Gilles Malafosse] had known Jean-Charles’ designs for over 20 years,’ says Claire Malafosse, artistic director of the Loulou group. After seeing de Castelbajac’s distinctive angel characters on the walls of Paris’ Gare du Nord and Société de Géographie, Gilles asked the artist to create a logo for Loulou, its appearance changing for each of the restaurant’s various locations. Mediterranean Loulou at Ramatuelle is a sun seeker with sunglasses made of lemon halves. At Le Pirate on Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Loulou becomes a buccaneer. In Paris, a chic femme de tendance and, at Courchevel, next to the Bellecôte piste, Loulou is a tomboy Alpinist in a woolly, winter bobble hat.

Signature dishes on executive chef Benoit Dargère’s menu are similarly classic, such as aubergines alla parmigiana, black truffle pizza, and fruit pavlova. Service is sophisticated, ‘but with a touch of folly’.

The Malafosses and the Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges wanted to create a terrace with a dazzling view and the atmosphere of ‘a family chalet’ somewhere between the Rocky Mountains and the Dolomites, and commissioned Paris-based interior architect Corinne Sachot to decorate the new Loulou, both inside and out.

Creating a narrative around the Loulou character ‘and her new mountain home’, Sachot designed a vast curtain separating the restaurant from the hotel – behind it, warm woodwork, local craftsmanship and Savoyard detail. Dining chairs have comfy, belly-back curves, while textiles – in tartan checks and variations of the mountains’ fiery red geraniums and poppies, Alpine currants and strawberries – are by Jules et Jim and Galerie Michele Aragon of Paris. ‘Loulou’s furniture tells a story,’ explains Sachot. ‘Outside, the sun loungers are sleighs. Inside, Loulou becomes a warm and cosy fairy tale of flowers and fruits.’

The fantasy continues downstairs in the reception’s kilim-upholstered lounge, where a roaring and playful Hellmouth fireplace, in the style of 16th-century Italian Renaissance painter Giulio Romano, both dominates and welcomes.

Loulou is at Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges, 422 Rue de Bellecôte, 73120 Courchevel, France, hotelsbarriere.com