Antoine, in a paragraph.
Antoine grew up in Val Thorens, in a flat that overlooked the lower terminal of the Cime Caron lift. He has, by his own count, skied the same descent a thousand times — and still takes the cabin with the same attention as the first morning. The school he founded in 2014 carries the rest of his temperament: short on words, long on patience, and entirely uninterested in the louder side of a French ski village.
He passed the Diplôme d'État with the class of 2008, after the usual long apprenticeship — three years at the École Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme in Chamonix, the technical examinations, the avalanche modules, the pedagogy week. He spent the following six winters inside one of the larger schools of the 3 Valleys, before founding Snowtailors with a short-list of colleagues he had quietly been skiing alongside since the diploma.
Antoine teaches in French and English, with the kind of fluency in both that nobody comments on after the first morning. His skiing is technical without being showy — the short, clean turn of a Belleville-trained instructor, equally at home on the south face of Cime Caron and on the magic carpet of Cascades. He is the instructor we send to families who want, simply, the founder. He skis with five or six of them every winter, on the same week, year after year.
Outside the working hours of the school, he is on the mountain — touring the col du Bouchet in April, ski-mountaineering above Pralognan when the season allows. He has no time for après-ski. He is, his colleagues say, the quietest member of the tribe and the one most likely to text at six in the morning to confirm a meeting time.
His teaching philosophy.
Antoine's first morning with a guest is, almost without exception, a reading morning. He does not teach. He watches — feet, line, the quiet inheritance of every previous instructor the family has worked with — and adjusts the rest of the week accordingly. The first corrections, when they come, are usually three. The fourth is held back for Tuesday.
He has a particular dislike for the kind of lesson that resembles a stadium drill. With adults, especially, he prefers to ski full descents in silence and stop only at the lift, where a single sentence — about pressure on the outside ski, or eyes on the gate to come — tends to do the work of an hour of small repeated turns. The result, by the end of the week, is usually a family that skis longer descents, in better order, without quite knowing why.
With children old enough to take him seriously (age seven and up, in his experience), he applies the same restraint with one addition — a steady, dry humour that turns the long cabin rides into the part of the day the child remembers most. He has, in seventeen winters, never raised his voice on a slope. He has, in seventeen winters, also never lost a child.
His favourite line in the 3 Valleys.
Asked, after a glass of wine at La Bouitte, Antoine names the Couloir Tournier above Courchevel — the long, narrow descent that drops from the shoulder of Saulire down to the mid-station of Verdons. He skied it for the first time at fifteen, with his father, on a bluebird February morning. He skis it twice a year now, almost always alone, almost always at first light.
For guests, his preferred line is gentler and more public — the full descent of the Cime Caron face, taken slowly, from the summit at 3 230 metres down to the village. It is, in his view, the most honest test of skiing in the 3 Valleys: a 920-metre vertical drop, four distinct snow textures from the wind-packed top to the south-facing finish, and no shortcuts. He uses it on Wednesday or Thursday of every guest week, weather allowing.
In the words of his guests.
We have skied with Antoine for eight winters. He is the first call we make when we book the chalet, before we book the flights. The children adore him. We adore him. A returning guest, London — chalet in Saint-Martin
What we noticed on the third day was how little he had said, and how much we had learned. By Friday I was skiing the Combe de Caron without thinking about it. He had done that quietly, somewhere between Tuesday and Thursday, and we had not noticed. An adult guest, Milan — first week with Snowtailors
Where you'll ski with him.
Antoine teaches across the entire 3 Valleys, but the families who book him for Christmas and New Year are most often staying in three places. Val Thorens — the village where he grew up and where the Snowtailors office is held — accounts for roughly half of his winter. Saint-Martin de Belleville, the quietest of the five villages and his preferred place to base a family with younger children, accounts for the next quarter. The rest of his calendar is spread across Méribel, Courchevel, and the long crossings between.
- Val Thorens — the home village. Antoine knows every chalet door, every shortcut between the Plein Sud sector and the Caron lift, and the morning timing of every concierge in the village.
- Saint-Martin de Belleville — for families who want the size of the 3 Valleys without the noise of Val Thorens. Antoine is the instructor we send when a family is staying at La Bouitte or in one of the village's private chalets.
- The full domain — for guests who want a different village every day. Antoine builds these weeks himself, with lunches booked in advance and the lift sequence timed to the minute.
Working with Antoine.
To request Antoine specifically, mention his name in your enquiry. His calendar fills first for the Christmas, New Year and February school weeks — write 60 days ahead for those periods, 14 days for any other. He skis half-day and full-day formats; for families of more than four, we usually recommend a full day with a built-in lunch stop, so that the morning and afternoon sessions can be paced differently.
Language pairing: French or English, equally fluent. He works most often with French, British, American, Belgian and Swiss families. For Italian-speaking guests, we usually pair the household with Marion Levasseur or Fabrice Galofaro instead.
Equipment, lift passes and lunch reservations are arranged separately by our concierge — the same morning Antoine confirms the meeting point. He prefers to start at the chalet door, skis on, by 9 a.m. He is rarely late. He is more often three minutes early.