Went with high hopes along with 2 other families having read the glowing reviews. We had several young children in our group which meant they needed to get the details spot on for it to work. Don't be fooled by their misleading website, it was far from a seamless experience and many of the smaller details were not dealt with properly which when taken together left a bad taste, particularly given the price. Where do I begin?

1. The false promises and misleading website
In conversations with Suzanne (the owner) before we arrived I was repeatedly assured that "nothing would be a problem" - that they are experts at sorting out lessons, sorting out the kids, getting them to and from ski school, and looking after them in the afternoon if needed so that we could relax and enjoy our skiing holiday. The reality was that they cannot (and will not) look after young kids. Had they just said so we could have made alternative childcare arrangements but by then it was too late, so it meant that one of us got at best 2 hours skiing in before having to collect our youngest.
We told her when we booked (a year in advance) that we wanted to lock in private lessons and as it was half-term week we knew these would book up quickly. We were assured it wouldn't be a problem as they have great relationships with all the ski schools. Well they didn't get around to getting back in touch with us about lessons until January, and wouldn't you know it the private instructors were all booked out and the best they could offer was one hour a day of lessons. A one hour ski lesson gives you enough time to meet, queue, take a chairlift up and do one or two runs and is pointless.
We were asked in advance if we had any food preferences or allergies, including whether we wanted offal. We said we eat anything except offal. I don't know why they bothered asking, we were offered beef heart on at least 3 of the 6 nights we were there, along with duck hearts one night and lamb's tongue another night. Yes there were other choices but there were only 3 choices each night, and if you didn't fancy offal or smoked eel you really only had one choice. The menus on the website look fantastic with a lot of choice but our menus were nothing like the website.
The "spa" - is really just a small room down by the laundry. The massage treatment was excellent, but it's not a spa. The sauna doubles as a drying room, and most of the time was filled with wet ski gear. The hot tub is out the front of the chalet and has a strange smell. The website claims it is one of the top 100 spas in the world. Honestly I don't know who they could have paid to make this claim.
Some of the bedrooms are ridiculously small. The beds are also small. Not at all a five star experience or the "most comfortable beds in the world" as the website claims.

2. The setup
It's set up like a chalet but the restaurant takes external bookings and at times it feels like the external bookings are their priority. The communal area is only small and includes the lounge and the restaurant. It is very hard to relax in this area, especially with kids, when external guests come in to dine in what is quite a formal restaurant setting. At one point during the day, one of our group was doing some work on one of the dining tables, and was asked by the owner if she could move because they had a housekeeping meeting!

3. The food
The website describes itself as having "Michelin level food". That should have set alarm bells ringing. On reflection what does that mean - is that a self-endorsement because it's not endorsed anywhere by the Michelin Guide?
As per above the choices were often limited. Also we found that it was just different derivations of the same dishes that were recycled throughout the entire week. We would have preferred they didn’t try so hard to offer fine dining style food every night, because most of the time it didn’t quite reach the mark, and many of us would have just preferred good quality comfort food after a day’s skiing.
The portions were on some occasions ridiculously small. One night the starter was a single small scallop, sliced into four pieces to make it last longer but smaller than the amuse bouche. Breakfast portions were also small and got smaller as the week progressed.

4. The attention to detail
Our friends missed their train back to London because the transfer left the chalet too late and there was extra traffic on the road. Would it not have been too much for one of the staff to check the traffic and ensure they left enough time? Google Maps is generally pretty accurate these days. Their transfer had to divert to Geneva Airport where they were dropped off and had to spend a fortune booking last minute flights. At no point did the chalet contact them to check they had made it home ok or that they were able to book flights.

5. The hidden charges
This was the final straw. On travelling back to London I reviewed our bill and compared the prices we had been charged for ski passes and ski school with the advertised prices on the web. I thought we had been overcharged by around £500 so I contacted the chalet. After a long conversation with the other owner Henry it transpired that I was mistaken in some of the prices I was looking at, but in fact (a) we had been charged an adult’s pass for one of our children – an error by the chalet (b) they apply a 6% charge to costs they pass through to cover “banking costs”! and (c) they pay in Euros but convert bills back to pounds at a rate of 1.10 to protect themselves against exchange rate movements! (the prevailing exchange rate was 1.20 at the time).
Henry assured me he didn’t want us to leave with a bad taste and asked what I would be happy with. I said I wanted to be charged the same prices as if I had bought the ski passes and lessons myself, because this is a standard service that any 5* chalet should provide. After a truly painful conversation we agreed that they would refund me £181.
I didn’t hear anything for a week, so I sent an email asking what had happened to the agreed refund. I didn’t get a reply, but yesterday I saw in my account that they had refunded me £65. What a joke.

All in all Ferme De Montagne has ideas above its station. It’s priced like a premium experience but they get too many things wrong to justify the prices. I should say that the young staff and ski guides are fantastic and extremely hospitable, and nothing is a problem for them. Special mention to Bertie and Lucy our ski guides. The staff are a credit to themselves but the owners are overbearing, irritating, and really should take a back seat in the operation because hospitality doesn’t come naturally to them.