Le Sarto.Megève, on skis and on foot.
Seven days, six nights at a gorgeous private chalet in Megève. Serious skiing, long lunches on the mountain, a village worth coming down for and French running through all of it.
The house
A chalet with Megève at its feet.
Le Sarto sits on the slope above Megève with the village in the window and the domain behind it. It is a real Haute-Savoie house — carved timber, painted panels, low winter light through deep windows — restored rather than reinvented, and taken exclusively for the week by our group alone.
- Seven ensuite bedrooms, exclusively ours for the week
- A salon built around the fire, and the village below the windows
- The honesty bar where the ski day gets retold
- Ski room downstairs, boots fitted, stored and warmed in-house
- An indoor pool for the end of the ski day
- Hammam and sauna
- A Nordic bath outside in the mountain air
- Technogym fitness room for those whose legs still have something to give
- A private chef in the house
- Breakfast before the mountain, dinner when you come home
- Apéritifs, house wine and champagne around the table
- One long dining table, and nowhere else you need to be
- A chalet team looking after the house throughout the week
- Private chauffeur throughout your stay
- Ski and boot fitting arranged in-house
- Everything on the mountain arranged before you arrive
The week, day by day
How the week runs.
This is a sample itinerary and is subject to change based on the seasonality of experiences and the conditions on the mountain.
The house is yours
A private transfer up from Geneva, and then nothing you have to do. Bags down, ski fitting handled in the house, something cold poured while the fire gets going. By the time the chef's first dinner is on the table you know who you are skiing with tomorrow, and the French has already started — over names, kit, food and wine, not over a worksheet.
Languages have always been, for me, a quiet kind of superpower.
I've spent most of my life moving between languages, cultures and places, and nearly fifteen years teaching other people to do the same. But what has kept me fascinated all this time isn't really the language itself. It's what happens because of it. The people you would never otherwise have spoken to. The joke you suddenly understand. The table you become part of. The moment a place stops feeling quite so foreign because, for once, you understand what is happening around you.
That's what I wanted these weeks to capture.
Megève gives you two kinds of French in the same day. There is the French of the mountain — quick, practical, decided on a chairlift — and then there is the French of a village that never became only a ski resort: the pâtisserie, the market, the maker who tells you how something is done because you asked.
I'm in the house all week, on the mountain, at the table and in the village with you. My job is to put the French where you are already standing, and to pitch it to you personally, whether you arrive with a handful of words or years of it behind you. Not every moment needs to become a language moment. Quite the opposite. I want the French to give you more of the day you are already having.
And somewhere along the way, something shifts.
You stop reaching for the French. It starts coming to you.
What is included
Everything that belongs to the week.
- 6 nights
- 2 ski groups
- Évasion Mont-Blanc
- Six nights at Le Sarto, taken exclusively for our group — seven ensuite bedrooms
- Chef-cooked dinners in the house on five of the six nights, including La Dernière Nuit
- Breakfast every morning, apéritifs, house wine and champagne
- Chef, maître d'hôtel, housekeeping and chauffeur throughout
- Indoor pool, hammam, sauna, Nordic bath, fitness room and media room
- Private transfers from and to Geneva
- Three full private ski days and two private half days, in two groups split by level
- Two private instructors for the week
- A six-day Évasion Mont-Blanc lift pass
- Ski and boot fitting at the house, boots stored and warmed in-house
- A Learn&Co French specialist in the house for the whole week, with support set per person
- A private pâtisserie atelier at Le Sarto, led in French
- One hands-on atelier with a local maker, in French
- One gastronomic dinner out — the high point of the week
- A conversation before you travel about your French, your skiing and what you want the week to change
- A personal continuation plan and a private follow-up session after you get home
Flights and travel to Geneva; ski and boot hire, which we arrange for you; travel insurance, which is required; spa treatments; and mountain and village lunches, which are chosen with the instructors day by day and settled directly — deliberately, so nobody is tied to a booking the snow has made pointless.
One price, the whole week.
Dates are being confirmed. Register your interest below and you will hear first.
For the first four.
The Founding Circle is reserved for the first four guests to join each new departure. It is not an early-bird discount. It marks the people who choose to be there at the very beginning of a new Learn&Co immersive experience.
Founding Circle guests receive:
- £500 Founding Circle benefit
- First choice of rooms
- A private language coaching session ahead of the retreat
- An intimate dinner with Maria at one of the destination's exceptional restaurants, while the rest of the group has dinner at the house
Four guests, Maria, one exceptional restaurant and a proper evening together.
Le Sarto, in full
Six nights in this house.
Kind words
“I did not expect French to get under my skin in the way it did.”
Maria has a gift for creating that kind of space. Nothing felt forced, but nothing felt accidental either. The whole week had taste, warmth and intelligence behind it.
The more the week unfolded, the more natural it became. French was simply part of what was happening: a story being told, a question I wanted to answer, a conversation I did not want to miss.
Somewhere between the long lunches, the walks, the wine, the laughter and conversations that kept going, something shifted. I stopped thinking quite so hard about the French and started using it because I actually wanted to say things.
I came home with something I hadn’t expected: French was starting to come naturally to me.
Before you ask
The questions people actually ask.
Comfortable and happy on blues, and able to get down a red. The week is built around two private groups split by level, with two instructors, so nobody spends the week waiting for anyone else — and stronger skiers are not held back. Three full days and two half days is real mileage.
Both, and they are not in competition. Skiing is the engine of the week; French is how the week is lived — with the instructors, at the table, in the village, with the people we meet. There are no lessons and no classroom.
Any level, including almost none. Support is set per person rather than per group, and a Learn&Co specialist is in the house all week. What you need to arrive with is willingness, not vocabulary.
Both are serious ski weeks. Courchevel gives you the sheer scale of Les 3 Vallées from a house high above the resort. Megève gives you the Évasion Mont-Blanc domain and then a village that never stopped being one — a market, makers, a pâtisserie, restaurants people here actually use — so the French carries on after the boots come off.
Yes, and many people do. You take your room and the group is curated by us: solo travellers, couples and pairs of friends, a small table of adults who chose the same week. You never need to arrive with six friends to fill a chalet.
Yes. A twin or double taken with a partner or a friend is £12,000 per person rather than £15,000, and you get exactly the same week.
Geneva is the airport, and private transfers to and from Le Sarto are included. The drive is a little over an hour in normal winter conditions.
Lunches are chosen day by day with the instructors, around the conditions and where you have ended up, and are settled directly rather than pre-booked. It is the one part of the week we deliberately leave open, and it is usually the best table of the day.
You leave with a personal French continuation plan and a private follow-up session included, taken once you are home. The point is that the week starts something rather than finishing it.
We’ll review your request, confirm the dates and your skiing and language levels, and make sure the week is right for you. Only then will you be invited to take a place. Nothing is taken at registration.
Which week has your attention?
Where to go next
The other Alpine week: Les 3 Vallées, from a house high above the resort.
A house in the Alpilles, and Provence at its own pace.
Every Learn&Co week, in France and in Italy.
Looking for French lessons instead? Explore French →