Alpine farm inns

Eating a cheese where it is made, at 1,800 metres, with a view of the peaks: that is what an alpine farm inn offers. These are mountain farms that, in summer, welcome hikers and serve a simple cooking from what the farm produces. It is the best way to understand the food of Haute-Savoie, by going to the source rather than to a restaurant.

How it works

An alpine farm inn is first a farm. In summer, when the herds go up to pasture with the transhumance, the farmers open a table for walkers. There you eat what the farm produces or transforms: the cheese from the morning milking, the homemade charcuterie, sometimes the farm’s own meat, with terroir dishes such as tartiflette, diots or a simple plate of cheese and bread. The menu is short, the setting rustic, and the product as close as it gets.

Most serve lunch only, by reservation, and only during the grazing season, roughly June to September. Many have to be earned: you often have to walk to reach them, which is part of the pleasure.

What you taste there

Depending on the farm, you find reblochon or abondance made on the spot, chevrotin in the Aravis, charcuterie of Savoie, and hot dishes. Some also offer direct sale of cheese to take away. It is a chance to see a making, to talk with the producers and to understand the link between the pasture, the animal and the plate.

Where to find them

Alpine farm inns are concentrated in the livestock massifs: the Aravis and the range around Manigod and Le Grand-Bornand, the Grand Massif above Samoëns, the Portes du Soleil and the Abondance valley. The tourist offices and destination pages list the open farms and their access conditions. Remember to book, and to check the days and the weather before going up. To plan an outing, see also the cheese routes page.