At Auberge la Bessannaise. Typical to France everywhere and something I rarely reject: foie gras.
Having spent a total of eight years in Munich, with the German Alps at our backdoor, I’m accustomed to weekends hiking in the mountains or cycling. I grew up camping and hiking every Summer and Autumn in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We eventually left Atlanta, Ga and moved to North Georgia where we literally had to drive over a mountain every day to work and school.
I love and belong in, the mountains. Mountainous regions smell different, feel different and taste different. Even time runs differently in the mountains. The pace stills and so does your mind. The body, while grounded by the immense power emanating from mountains seems to want to move, hike and climb. And this energy expenditure produces another kind of appetite.
Obviously not fish from the lake but it was extremely fresh and delicious! I didn't photograph our first night's meal when we had fish from Lake Annecy.
In February of 2007 I spent a long weekend with colleagues in Les Arcs, near Bourg-Saint-Maurice in Savoie, France. Due to my lack of ski skills, I had to walk somewhat sideways through snow (without boots) for about 500 meters to reach the restaurant our company had arranged dinner at, which was located higher up on the mountain. Five-hundred meters is nothing…unless it’s uphill, in snow, where no footpath exist and you’re ill-equipped. Fortunately another colleague joined me but by the time we reached our location we were cold, wet and hungry. Despite voracious appetites, the heavy, cheese and ham-laden dinner of raclette Savoyarde made me want to roll over and die.
That was my only visit to Savoie but since then I’ve wanted to return to Savoie in the Summer and even more so after spending the past ten months back in Paris. Paris is, for lack of a better word…exhausting. Flat, cement, crowded, fast-paced and no mountain. Unless you were born and spent your entire life in Paris, you will never see Paris as a place to really live.
And so, I headed to Savoie, to Lake Annecy and Chambéry with excitement, happy to board the TGV to Lyon and know that Paris was disappearing behind me. I had asked around for tips on eating typical Savoyarde fare in the weeks preceding our holiday. A couple people told me to eat fresh fish from the lake and the rest told me, “la tartiflette Savoyarde au reblochon!” or “Fondue Savoyarde” basically, cheese, cheese and more cheese. No thank you. I love cheese and understand that Savoie is known for it’s Reblochen, Tomme and Beaufort but it’s summer and the thought of cheese turned my stomach.
Savoie, like most regions is known by outsiders for a particular food specialty but the region’s other dishes are neglected from mention in most tourist guides. I went to Savoie determined not to eat cheese and that’s exactly what I did. We had an (almost) cheese-free weekend. We did take some chevre with us on a hike but had to throw it out because it scented our hotel room in ways not so romantic.
I shot this on Lake Annecy.Click on the photo and you will see the colour of the water much better. WP photo compression is bad.
Savoie is blessed with beautiful lakes, fed by mountain water and perfect for producing fresh, healthy fish. The valleys between mountains are full of local farmers growing produce and raising duck, geese, pigs and cattle. The local agriculture produces a wonderful variety of stews, sausages, potatoes dishes and white asparagus (a feature that Savoie and Bavaria share).
The only disappointing feature of our culinary experience in Savoie was the hour at which restaurants stopped serving. We strolled into La Maniguette at 21:30 only to be told the kitchen was closed! When I tried to reserve a table for dinner on lake Annecy at one of the nicest restaurants on the lake, they told me they only had one seating and it started at 19:30. Apparently people go to bed early in Savoie. Nevertheless, we found local restaurants in Chambery and enjoyed fish from the lake. The best meal we had was of course, the evening after our hike and it was an accidental find: Auberge la Bessannaise, (photos above) where I ordered a 5-course meal but, skipped the cheese course.
My magrets de canard à la forestière...this sauce forestiére is also typical to Bavaria and shares the same name (in German of course)
ps
I suspected that, like Savoie’s wine grapes, the local’s appetites would be influenced by the cold winters and hot summers. I expected them to avoid fondue and other cheese smothered dishes in the Summer. But we did indeed see locals eating fondue on our last night.
On the hike but off the trail..where I left a lock of my hair under the tree stump by the stream, asking the Universe and the mountain for my wish: A house in the mountains.
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