Zermatt

Zermatt belongs to the quiet list of European places that refused a compromise. No cars. No sprawl. A village that rises at first light and goes quiet at last, and a mountain that has earned every cliché about it. The skiing is serious. The hotels are older than most countries. The light, from the right hotel window, does what no photograph has ever quite captured.

We fly here because this is the Switzerland the Swiss keep for themselves. Because restraint is a luxury, and a car-free village is a kind of restraint. Because the Matterhorn deserves to be seen at breakfast, not at the end of a five-hour transfer.