Originally founded in 1888, and in the same place as today’s Hotel, was an old country auberge run by Anastase Empereur and his wife Marie Arnaud. This auberge – ancient way post and coaching inn – became an important meeting place, resisting the passage of time and miraculously spared by the war-time bombardment of 1940.

It was their daughter Hortense, assisted by her husband Adolphe Stanislas Arpin, who then took over the business. She was succeeded in 1906 by her son Marius and his wife Herminie. Marius divided his time between the bistro and the family farm.

In 1914, the hotel was to be demolished for rebuilding. Marius was killed in service one year after the start of the war at Souchy in the Pas de Calais, leaving his widow, Herminie, alone with their three children. Armed only with her courage she decided to continue the works, which she achieved through her tenacity and thanks to her friends.

The auberge now became the Hotel Arpin. And the business evolved. Passing trade develops into holiday trade, with guests staying for two or three weeks, even a month. Adolphe, her father-in-law, helped Herminie until his death in 1925. Ida and Noemie, her two daughters, also helped run the business whilst her son Fernand took over the family farm.

In 1925 Fernand Arpin married Adele Empereur. From their union three children are born – Guy, Arlette and Michel Arpin.

In 1930 the fifteen bedrooms and the dining room were already welcoming the fore-runners of skiing.

The tone is set. Passionate about skiing, Guy Arpin joins the French team from 1951 to 1956 followed by his brother Michel, who joins the national team from 1956 to 1966. Michel trained a promising young skier … named Jean Claude Killy.

Upon the death of Herminie it becomes the turn of Ida and her sister Noemie, accompanied by her partner Francis Recordon, Mayor of Saint Foy at the time, to run the establishment.

In the spring of 1972, the hotel is again demolished and rebuilt to modern standards.  It was baptized

“Hotel Le Monal” when it re-opened in December 1972.  Odette and Guy Arpin passed the “baton” onto their daughter Catherine and her husband Yves Marmottan, who became the sole owner in 1997.

Today, after a recent renovation of the twenty bedrooms and restaurant, and the opening of the wine cellar, the hotel offers all the quality, class, tradition and comfort of a classic hotel and has been awarded three “chimneys” and two “ Marmites”  under the respected sign of “ Logis de France” (quality awards by the Hotel Guide “Logis de France”).

At the crossroads of world-renowned ski resorts, “Le Monal” continues the tradition of a warm welcome, with a strong mountain identity, comfortably settled around the refined table of your host.