Switzerland in Vietnam’s highlands: Sapa’s Hotel de la Coupole merges hill tribe with French haute couture

I arrive at Hotel de la Coupole — M Gallery in the remote mountain village of Sapa around 5pm, following a five-hour bus ride from Hanoi. The imposing structure’s exterior screams Western influence, with its street-facing facade’s endless yellow columns and balconies quite literally the height of imperialism. But it’s nothing you’d expect to see anywhere near South East Asia. My tour group and I are greeted by a warm twilight glow and the hug of northern Vietnam’s Highlands. Classical piano sets the tone of luxury and glamour, but as I look around, there’s so much happening that luxury fulfils only half of the promise. A warm cup of hot chocolate is waiting for us; a custom I’ve not experienced elsewhere in this country. And it’s not even that cold. This is not the Swiss Alps, nor some fancy French country club. But if you’d blindfolded me and dropped in this very lobby, I’d swear we’d just missed ski season. Expansive red chandeliers hang from baroque ceilings, and that’s before you notice the really interesting features. The hats, suspended above an assortment of heavy-duty suitcases of a bygone era. I look around a little more. Large rolls of vibrantly coloured yarn sit atop shelves, yes yarn. The kind your grandmother might stow away at home if the sweaters she knitted were for seven-foot Vikings. Each is coloured differently from the next, and most are illuminated to remind you of their quirkiness. Paper-thin runway model silhouettes stand high above the archways — which sit below the even higher ceilings — adding a veil of lust and playfulness. This is all very odd. Sorry, not odd. Unique. Everything sits perfectly in its place, and nothing detracts from the hotel’s grandeur and charm. In fact, it all makes it. It’s fashion, it’s chic, it’s haute couture. It’s sex, yet it’s respectable. Leather boots are displayed as if an exhibit in the Louvre. But again, we’re so very far from Paris. Or are we? This 249-room, five-star Switzerland-inspired nod to the region’s French Indochine era is the brainchild of world-famous American designer Bill Bensley. Beginning construction in 2014 and opening to the public in 2018, this ten-floor modern marvel of Sapa fits so seamlessly into the town that it’s joined to a train station connecting hikers to the famous 3,147m Mt Fansipan peak. So impressive was the novel build that it was awarded Luxury Hotel in Vietnam — Best New Arrival at Hurun’s Best of the Best Awards in Shanghai in 2019. At 65, Bensley boasts 200-odd resorts and palaces, and has become a proud champion for the environment as his luxury works interact symbiotically with it. I take the elevator to my Superior room on the seventh floor. My first instinct is to bypass the interior altogether and open the balcony door, where I discover the sun has disappeared behind the mountainous wall looming over the entire town. It’s one of those rare travel moments I won’t soon forget. Back inside, the yellowy mustard theme symbolic of the Indochine era is extended — on the walls, drapes, and chair. And more quirky ornaments; a lamp with adorning pearl necklaces has replaced the head of a half-mannikin on either side of the TV. By now a TV is probably the last thing I expected to find. Modest sketches of fashion models are framed along the wall. There’s even a landline phone in the bathroom beside the toilet so you can tell your friends what they’re missing while you relieve yourself. . . next to more sketches. Intricate tiles, the ceiling, and bed rest. The effort to build this hotel must have been tireless. The next morning I eat breakfast at Chic on the tenth and highest floor in what feels like the clouds, because I can almost reach out and touch them. The sky is a crisp blue, and the outdoor dining area is surprisingly not as busy as the indoor buffet seating. A row of catwalk model figures line the main dining area as if posing on a runway, with a towering dome at the foot of the room accentuated by a tree that grows into the sky. It feels only fitting I enjoy my waffles and maple syrup at such a height outdoors while bathing in the fresh mountain air. My typical gut-safe travel serving of jam toast and orange juice can wait another few days. Our travel group is soon treated to a hotel tour with a spokesperson for Sun Group, the Vietnamese development company behind the entire precinct’s overhaul. “Beautify,” the representative says. That’s the motto underscoring Sun Group’s venture into every new or existing space, while ensuring they don’t neglect the natural beauty that came before it. The hotel’s features draw on two worlds that were never supposed to meet, if not for Napolean’s decision to expand the French empire into Vietnam in the 1850’s. “You can see every detail is mixed by a French style and the ethnic groups of Sapa,” we learn. “The lamp in your room, it’s the black head of the Dao people in Sapa. And the umbrellas are the Hmong people.” French colonialism meets hill tribe culture at every turn. During the French occupation of Vietnam in the early 20th century, it’s said Hanoi-based executives would travel to the mountains to escape the heat and remind them of home. Despite snow falling here every three to five years, and rice paddies lining many foothills, Europe really doesn’t seem that far away. While the French influence has left an indelible signature on this town for decades since their colonisation, the theme of Swiss glamour Bill Bensley adopted has been echoed by other developments in the short years following the hotel build. Though Bensley credits the project’s artistic direction with a find he stumbled upon at a flea market in Paris — a vintage polka dot hat from the 1920’s that had been placed atop a traditional Vietnamese hill tribe hat. The fusion of the two stories proved too compelling to ignore. While we hear so much these days about minimalism, it’s such a foreign concept here that the esteemed architect may never have actually come across it. “The style of the Bill Bensley is not minimalism, it’s maximalism. He brought everything in the world to this hotel, every detail. He’s like a collector,” our guide says. Also on the tenth floor, I notice the Absinthe bar which too highlights the patterned ceiling and open space it lays bare. Bamboo shoots spring up from the floor and plush velvet chairs of pinks and purples urge you to click your fingers and have staff fan you while you drink some fruity yet refined cocktail. I refrain, of course. “Hotel de la Coupole means hotel of the ceilings, so you can see every ceiling even in your room is very unique, and very detailed,” we learn. It’s all coming together now. As we mosey in and out of corridors, down lifts, past glass windows, the detail is only heightened. We pass the Nuages Spa and enter Le Grand Bassin, or The Grand Basin — a remarkable indoor aquatic centre with a strong emerald green colour palette and grand fixtures unveiling decadence on a new level. Large red chandeliers hang parallel to the pool surface, with chiselled golden swimmers lining the area. And continuing the theme of ceilings, a painting of a glass roof depicts female divers leaping out of an aeroplane in the clouds. Our guide says the inspiration for much of the spaces was drawn from Wes Anderson’s 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Think fantastically large rooms and all manner of things adorning them. But I don’t believe the origin of this narrative matters as much to Bensley. The key intended takeaway for guests, in my opinion, is that everywhere you look there is a story to be told. The luscious outdoor garden bed, Cacao Patisserie, yes there’s luxury, but it’s fused with imagination. Our tour is cut short after 30 mins, though we could comfortably have spent hours poring over each ornate feature, artistic decision or historic touchpoint. What’s evident is Bensley’s creation implores travellers not to fit uniformly into the mould of five-star hotel guests, because that’s not why he built it. He asks them to embrace their playful side, literally, to smile, and indulge in the luxury and culture that envelopes them without simply existing in it. Perhaps nothing like a traditional five-star hotel that’s built purely for luxury’s sake. Hotel de la Coupole boasts colour, charisma, and flair of the early 20th century converted into today’s tastes — and you get the best of both worlds. With select rooms available from less than $200 per night, Sapa’s crown jewel is both closer and less expensive than its European ski-town counterparts. But in no way is it less memorable. + Zach Margolius was a guest of Vietnam Airlines and Sun Group. They have not influenced or read this story before publication.