60 years of a family history

The story begins with Raymonde Fenestraz, a young woman from the Tarentaise valley who sensed early on the rise of winter sports and the tremendous future awaiting the Alpine resorts.

Curious and determined, she nevertheless left her native Savoie for a time to move to Britain and learn English. There she worked first as an au pair, then as a chambermaid, before taking charge of a small family-run hotel. A first experience of hospitality which, though she did not yet know it, would shape the rest of her path.

Back in the Alps, Raymonde joined a small estate agency in Courchevel. She quickly revealed a sharp business sense and a talent for negotiation.

In 1966, she ended up buying the agency.

What might have remained just a professional step became the first chapter of a family adventure that, sixty years later, now extends far beyond the mountains of her childhood.

Raymonde then met the man who would become her husband, André, a former travelling coffee merchant turned builder. Their personalities and talents complemented each other naturally.

Together, the Fenestraz couple took part in the development of Courchevel and became pioneers, creating luxury chalets and residences that would leave a lasting mark on the resort: the Chalets du Hameau de Bellecôte, the Chalet de Pierres and the Résidence du Jardin Alpin.

These projects already reflected a certain vision of mountain living: authentic, elegant places where comfort should never overshadow the soul of the destination.

In the late 1970s, Raymonde and André continued their adventure in Méribel Mottaret with the construction of the Hôtel et Résidence AlpenRuitor. Its silhouette gradually became one of the village’s landmarks.

Then came the Hôtel de La Loze, ideally located facing the Croisette and the slopes of Courchevel 1850.

But another dream still drove the couple.

When the 1992 Winter Olympic Games were awarded to Albertville, Raymonde and André seized the opportunity to bring an extraordinary project to life. In Courchevel, they took over and transformed the former Hôtel des Airelles into a palace inspired by the Austro-Hungarian world, soon nicknamed the “Sissi Palace.”

Having become one of Courchevel’s iconic addresses, Les Airelles remained in the family until 2007.

While Raymonde and André were writing this story in the Alps, their only son, Raoul, was preparing to follow his own instinct in turn. With his wife Stéphanie and their three children, he crossed the Atlantic to begin a new life.

Thirty years after the family’s first ventures in Savoie, Raoul and Stéphanie Fenestraz became pioneers of a new family adventure in their turn.

They chose Argentina.

Near Córdoba, they envisioned a home inspired by the old estancias of the early twentieth century. Surrounded by wide open spaces, horses and farmland, Estancia El Colibrí opened its doors in 2005.

Today a member of Relais & Châteaux, the Estancia invites guests to discover another side of Argentina: country living, the world of horses, polo, fine food, and that special relationship with the land that defines the region.

A few kilometres away, the family also developed Don André, named in tribute to Raoul’s father. On this land devoted to raising Aberdeen Angus cattle, a more environmentally conscious approach has gradually been put in place, based in particular on the principles of regenerative grazing.

The Argentine adventure then continued nearly 800 kilometres to the north, in Salta.

In 2007, Raoul and Stéphanie acquired House of Jasmines, an estancia set within a vast park at the foot of the Andes. This new Maison also joined Relais & Châteaux and became one of the family’s iconic addresses in Argentina.

From the plains of Córdoba to the Andean landscapes of Salta, a new generation thus gave its own interpretation of Fenestraz hospitality.

South America still had one more destination in store for the family.

Captivated by the singular atmosphere of Trancoso, a former fishing village in the state of Bahia that has become an iconic destination on the Brazilian coast, Raoul and Stéphanie decided in 2012 to buy a house there.

They renovated it to create Casa Angatu, a villa just steps from the famous Quadrado and the beaches of Trancoso.

With its five suites, tropical garden and swimming pool, Casa Angatu retains the spirit of a true holiday home: an intimate place designed to experience the destination at one’s own pace, with family or friends.

In 2016, exactly fifty years after Raymonde bought the first estate agency in Courchevel, the family’s various properties were brought together under a single banner: Maison Fenestraz.

This name gave a shared identity to properties that were, in fact, very different from one another.

From Alpine chalets to Argentine estancias and a tropical villa in Brazil, each Maison keeps its own architecture, personality and connection to its territory. Yet all are united by the same vision: discreet luxury, genuine hospitality, and the feeling of being welcomed into a home rather than simply a place to stay.

A philosophy that has always been summed up by the family motto:

“The best thing a person can do for another is to share their dream.”

Staying at Maison Fenestraz means stepping, for the length of a journey, into part of that dream. Staying at Maison Fenestraz means sharing that dream.

The years passed, but Maison Fenestraz kept evolving right where the story began.

In Courchevel, the Hôtel de La Loze underwent a major transformation. After three years of renovation, the hotel unveiled new rooms, a new entrance, a redesigned lounge and new spaces in 2019.

Stéphanie Fenestraz shaped this new atmosphere alongside architect Bernard Burlot of the Carré Concept agency. The Savoyard spirit remains, but is now more contemporary and refined — an interpretation the family likes to call the “Fenestraz Alpine Style.”

The Appartements d’Exception collection, born in Courchevel 1850, has also expanded to Annecy. Apartments with very different atmospheres now complete the family’s offering, always driven by the same intent: to offer singular places, each with its own distinct character.

The story of Estancia El Colibrí also continues to evolve.

Raoul and Stéphanie’s former family home, located on the Estancia’s grounds, has been renovated to welcome travellers in turn.

Simply named La Maison, this private villa offers a different way to discover El Colibrí: with greater privacy, as if one had one’s own home at the heart of the Argentine countryside.

It has also become the first Relais & Châteaux member villa in Argentina, carrying forward an idea present since the very beginnings of Maison Fenestraz: opening the doors of places first conceived and lived in as homes.

After France, Argentina and Brazil, Raoul and Stéphanie’s pioneering spirit led them to a new destination.

Italy.

During a stay in Puglia for the olive harvest in 2019, they discovered a region where they found everything they loved: a deeply vibrant culture, generous cuisine, villages steeped in history, centuries-old olive trees, vineyards, and an ever-present connection to the land.

In 2020, they travelled across southern Italy in search of a place to imagine a new chapter in life and family.

It was in Salento, between the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, that they finally found this new balance.

They then undertook the restoration of two old masserias, taking care to preserve their architecture and character.

The first, Masseria del Gigante, opened for rental in 2021. Surrounded by olive groves, vineyards and farmland, it became the family’s first Italian Maison.

A few years later, a second property continued the story.

In 2025, Masseria Torre Ruggeri welcomed its first guests.

Two masserias, two personalities, but one shared desire: to let guests experience Puglia the way the family discovered it themselves.

In 2026, Maison Fenestraz celebrates its 60th anniversary.

Sixty years have passed since Raymonde bought that small estate agency in Courchevel.

Since then, generations have followed one another. The Alps have sometimes given way to the Argentine plains, the beaches of Brazil, or the olive groves of Puglia. Hotels, estancias, villas and homes have all become part of the family story.

But behind this diversity of places, what matters most has never changed.

Maison Fenestraz remains a family story, built around places chosen out of passion rather than chance — a story in which each generation brings its own ideas, journeys and dreams while preserving what has been passed down to it.

Today, sixty years after Raymonde, Maison Fenestraz continues to move forward with the same curiosity and the same resolve: to bring places with soul to life, to build connections with the territories that surround them, and to share with our guests a certain idea of travel and hospitality.

For since 1966, one conviction has run through the generations:

“The best thing a person can do for another is to share their dream.”

1966 — 2026. The dream continues.