The 30th anniversary of Fermes de Marie

A story of men

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The first major phase of Fermes de Marie is therefore the recovery of ancient materials. From 1983 to 1988, Jean-Louis teamed up with his “guys” who, taking advantage of the off-season (the latter being ski instructors, mountain guides) came to work alongside him. Over the days and years, friendships are forged in the team around work... and a glass of brandy. “Today, it would be impossible to do that again, it was not a question of money, it was a men's story.” Because Jean-Louis and Jocelyne are embarking on this project wholeheartedly. As Jocelyne confides: “We have always done things that we enjoyed, without marketing projects or studies. We are fortunate to be a family and above all we want to have fun in our job.” Also, in 1988, after dismantling dozens of farms, Jean-Louis began to think about what he could do with them... Using a notebook in small squares, he took his notes and began to make cardboard models while starting to look for land, which he still did not have...

“I found this land and negotiated it for a year to a farmer who only wanted to sell it under certain conditions.” Luckily, they finally came to an agreement. And then everything happens very quickly. With an architect friend, he worked according to the plans for his model and began to draw the project. “At that time, the hotel industry simply piled up rooms to accommodate people, but there was no art of living.” The Sibuets decided to take the opposite approach to what was done then, as when they imagined rooms of over 30 square meters with a large bathroom, even if that seemed normal today.

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A crazy project

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Construction of Les Fermes de Marie began in 1989. Moreover, most of the Farms were designed in just nine months, with them opening in December of that year. “I had found a mason who was passionate. During the week, he went up the walls. At the weekend, I would seal and then he would pour the tiles.” Clearly, Jean-Louis Sibuet works day and night, on the structure during the day and then in the evening, decorating the stone walls... sometimes before joining Jocelyne who works on furniture, which she finds but also designs, such as her bedside lamps.

In nine months therefore, with around fifty people, most of the Farms was designed. More specifically, around thirty rooms, including two suites, the chalet where the family lived at the time with their two children, Nicolas and Marie (which became suites 101 and 102), the restaurant and the structure of the future spa, including the basement, and even the pool. “We had the impression that it was over when it was the beginning. It seemed huge to me... I even asked myself what I had done, if it was not excessive...” Especially since the couple committed themselves to this crazy project — recreating an authentic mountain hamlet — without having validated its financing. “Everything was built, continues Jean-Louis, “but I could not pay for it! The banker told me that you couldn't do it like that! It was funny.” Also, at a time when Megève has lost its former luster and is no longer in fashion, Jean-Louis Sibuet goes to see twenty bankers, until he finds the one who understands his idea and follows up on the project.

“I was not unconscious but carefree”. In the summer of 1990, the indoor pool and spa were completed. The surroundings, on the other hand, seem to have always been there.

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‍Imagining the art of living in the mountains

In this rare place, Jean-Louis and Jocelyne Sibuet have breathed a soul, and a real art of living into the hotel industry, something that did not exist until then. They had already laid the groundwork with their first hotel Au Coin du Feu, a little gem that they completely redesigned. Inspired and inspiring, Farms, on the other hand, do not suffer from the passage of time and trends.. “Les Fermes de Marie was made with a soul and a will; money does not do that.”, concludes Jean-Louis. A project carried out with total commitment: financial, human, family. Moreover, customers looking for authenticity were not wrong. Loyal people who come back over the generations.

And that's good news, the Farms were designed in this spirit.“We always wanted Les Fermes de Marie to be a family hotel for the family, run by a family”, explains Jocelyne Sibuet, like the people she greets and who have been coming here for thirty years with their children and grandchildren. Because Les Fermes de Marie, to use his words, have a “spirit of a luxury boarding house”. An upscale place, out of the ordinary and certainly not a show off.

In short, an emblematic place of the Sibuet style and of course of the mountain lifestyle, where tradition, simplicity and authenticity go hand in hand with elegance and refinement, worked down to the smallest detail. And whose success cannot be denied... A real great story.