If grand opening is not quite the word for a new shop that sells old stuff, let’s go with an opening occasion. Located just next to two restaurants at the far end of the square, L’Atelier is worthy of a look and a browse.

Back to the opening occasion; great company, great finger food and most interesting paraphernalia, paintings, antiques, old stuff, interesting stuff and the like.

By the by, this shop is owned and run by dearest friend Ursula Waeny. For those of you not familiar with the history, Ursula owned and ran Mood’s Restaurant for 5 years. She inspired and forged Mood’s to be one of Zermatt’s favorite dining spots. Previously, fo ar colorful 40 or so years she was indispensable to “The Boss” Karl Ivarrson. Together they fashioned the Hotel Post in Zermatt into one of the resort’s truly great locations. An expired part of Zermatt’s “remember when” period. Anyway that’s another story, let’s get back to L’Atelier.

The little shop on the square boasts a truly comfortable as well as comforting interior. In fact going there to browse may not really (in my guess) turn out to be a typical “browsing” experience. I’ll wager the odds are high that you would end up chatting with Ursula, perhaps having a drink and spending much more time there then you anticipated.

What kind of stuff can one buy? L’Atelier offers mountains of memories, and pieces of life. Many of these memories and artifacts are in some way related to the history and local color of this magnificent Matterhorn resort. Paintings, signed portraits, photos, books, all tell a story and all take their place in local folklore. Heck, there are paintings by people that even I met and liked; the late Tony Ashton for example; there is almost an entire wall dedicated to his paintings.

Indeed there are real antiques as well as a lot of older, interesting items that simply do not fall into the antique category. The latter can be found under unique, a category of great interest that should captivate many. In a nutshell, L’Atelier is a destination within a destination. The place is worthy of many visits; not just because of the high degree of interesting objects d’art and stuff, but because of the high degree of interesting quotient of the management. Fellow browsers too if you’re lucky.