Back to basics

By creating, we remember. For me, it all began with my childhood, the love of my parents, and their respect for nature and the mountains. They knew – or constantly invented – a thousand ways of dealing with everyday life, to ward off winter and summer, the heat and the cold, water and fire. They gave pet names to the flowers and all the plants of the Aravis. Their every act was a new science, a new form of art. And I loved it, loved listening and watching, then interpreting and recreating, preserving and – perhaps most important of all for me now – passing that wisdom on.

The Maison des Bois is inspired by the traditional architecture of Savoy chalets. The restaurant, reception and bar fan out around an enormous pole – the entire trunk of a pine tree, which supports the roof and seems to moor it in the earth and the stone. With wood, you sense the living hot guts of the architecture – the solidly powerful and complex way it supports a roof or a wall speaks volumes about human ingenuity. Reflecting both the unchanging existence of the settler and the ephemeral life of the nomad, the wood moves and its ribs speak of the movement in all living things. Which is why, in the Maison des Bois, my unstinting and emotional mission, regardless of the cost, is to show, share and reveal what is all too often hidden in lofts: the genius – yes ‘genius’ is the perfect word– of the popular arts and traditions of my region. The Maison des Bois is a house of creation, because it respects its roots. And no, this is no mere nostalgia trip, but rather a boundless love for truth, for a way of life in which the contemporary world plays a key role.