An alpine winter feast: cheese, wine and a side dish of snowshoeing in France
The unmistakable whiff of cow – pungent, but not unpleasant – hit me as soon as I arrived at Ferme Dunoyer above the Haute-Savoie village of Samoëns. Rather than put me off, the scent heightened my appetite for the cheese blowout that was to come.
Sat at a wooden communal table inside the pine-walled restaurant run by the farm's owner, Blandine Dunoyer, I waited for the bonanza of mountain comfort food: fondue savoyarde, tartiflette, raclette, then diots (smoked pork sausages) with polenta. Somehow, I found room for potée savoyarde, a rib-sticking dish of slow-cooked pork shoulder, cabbage and potatoes, then a round of top-notch alpine cheese, reblochon and tomme de savoie, before a creamy blueberry dessert.
On the other side of the restaurant wall, a large window revealed the barn where Blandine's 84 cows are kept. On our side, with wine and an aperitif, the meal came to €33 each. It was a reminder that not everything in Samoëns revolves around skiing, despite being part of Grand Massif, the fourth largest ski domain in the French Alps. Agriculture and wine production are still very much at the forefront of this pretty, medieval village about 38 miles (60km) east of Geneva, and the only French ski resort to be classified as a 'national monument'.
There certainly is a sense of timelessness about Samoëns when you stand in Place du Gros Tilleul in front of the giant lime tree (the eponymous Gros Tilleul) which has been there since 1438. Its covered market, first established on a Wednesday in 1355, has kept the same weekly date since then. Opposite is the imposing 16th-century Our Lady of Assumption church, whose stonemasons took their craft around Europe and as far as Louisiana, developing a reputation for being among the best. You can see their work among the old stone houses decked with flowers along the narrow lanes in the old heart of the village.
With the Grand Massif's 165 miles of pistes off limits to me, thanks to a ski injury, I was free to explore the food and drink side of Samoëns more thoroughly. I had the excellent fortune to be here during the Vignerons font du ski, a wine festival held every January in which producers from around France join local winemakers to offer tastings to anyone who pays €5 for a wine glass. Under the stone vaulted ceilings of the village's former stables, I met Adrien Vallier, whose Domaine Vallier is about six miles from Samoëns and produces agreeably dry white wine from the indigenous gringet grape within the Ayse appellation. He took over the winery in 2018 from his grandmother, whose great-grandfather first planted the vines in 1896.
Although Adrien had spent his younger years picking grapes (he's now 46), he had to learn the wine business quickly. It evidently worked, as he now sells his wine to Michelin-starred restaurants, in addition to his winter job as a ski instructor and co-founder of ZigZag ski school.
For such a tiny wine region – one of the smallest in France – Savoie has an extraordinary variety of grapes and terroirs. As it stretches from Lake Geneva down towards Grenoble, perhaps that's not so surprising. Martin Girat, who owns Le Nez en l'Air wine shop in the centre of the village, explained: 'There's a big difference in climate, and the sunshine is completely different. In Bordeaux you have six varieties – in Savoie it's in the 20s.'
With wine comes its best pal, cheese, and the Fromagerie Fruitière des Hauts de Savoie, the village's cheese cooperative and food shop where farmers bring their milk to be transformed into reblochon, is a must-visit. Among the tomme de savoie, abondance, raclette, tomme boudanne and various goat's cheeses for sale, I spotted the small white discs of crioutin, a fresh cow's milk cheese created by cheese farmer Aurore Delesmillières at Ferme du Criou and which is a local staple.
I had already tasted another speciality from Samoëns at the restaurant of my hotel, the Neige et Roc: soupe châtrée, which turns the simple combination of stale bread, heaps of tomme de savoie and a slow-cooked onion broth, into something quite luscious. It was so thick it had to be cut with a knife.
In contrast to all this hearty rusticity, I joined one of the regular patisserie-making classes run by professional pastry chef Ana de la Fuente in her airy and immaculate home in the village. We attempted – and more or less succeeded – in making a charlotte russe, a concoction of soft biscuits, whipped vanilla ganache and pear jam. And it tasted quite splendid.
Although I was missing the slopes, the joys of being in the mountains were in full force – I basked in the sunshine on the slopeside restaurant terrace of Lou Caboëns at 1,600 metres and strolled in the snow, taking in the views of Mont Blanc from the sunny Col de Joux Plane. This is where you'll see some of the 26 miles of cross-country ski trails, as well as an exhilarating toboggan run. Fans of cold water swimming can immerse themselves under careful supervision (from sports coach Florian Milesi) at Lac aux Dames on the outskirts of the village, followed by a session in a mobile sauna. And ice-skaters can take a spin round the huge outdoor rink in the centre.
Perhaps the best combination of snow, food and wine came about on a snowshoe hike at dusk in the woods near the hamlet of La Rosière. Our guide, Hervé Martinez, led us on a slow, contemplative walk while the moon rose, our senses heightened as we breathed in cold, pine-scented air. Our reward after 90 minutes was a fondue savoyarde prepared by Hervé in a tepee, with a wine-tasting session with his friend Julien Ettel (who runs online wine business Livino). Sounds of conviviality coming out of that teepee as we glugged and gorged echoed through the otherwise silent forest, bringing a delicious warmth to a cold winter's night. The skis can wait.
This trip was provided by Samoëns Tourism. Hotel Neige et Roc has doubles from €200. Ana de la Fuente's pastry classes cost €40-€50pp for three hours. Snowshoe walks with fondue and wine-tasting with Bureau de Guides and Livino €80pp; or €56pp for snowshoe walks with fondue. Pedestrian ski lift day passes cost €11
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