Unlike our summer holidays where we eat dinner outside every day, our wintersport holidays are somewhat different. We love eating indoors in our apartment and we usually eat ready-to-eat foods that we brought from the Netherlands: Stamppot and Borenkool, and of course we brought as well a couple of rookworst, appelmoes and even the jus! We love eating this hearty Dutch winter meal after a long and tiresome day of skiing and snowboarding in the mountains. There is just something about it that is fulfulling on a cold winter evening.
And on other nights when we feel a bit social, we hit the local pub (which is usually quiet since this is France) and dine outside for the evening. We probably eat out 2 to 3 times during the entire week’s stay and the rest we eat indoors.
One of the restaurants in Flaine that I had my eye on was ‘La Ferme du Sartot’. I was first attracted to the pictures of its interior. It’s a cosy wooden cabin located at Flaine Front de Neige (lower village), which is quite a bit of a walk from the centre of Flaine. It will probably take about half an hour from Flaine Foret (upper village) and perhaps 15 minutes from Flaine Forum (middle village). The restaurant is at the end part of the parking at Front de Neige.
The woman manning the reception of our apart hotel gave us a tip to call the restaurant to pick us up. However, Dutchman and I prefer to walk, especially after dinner when our stomachs were full. The restaurant do provide a free shuttle bus, but you would need to call them in advance to arrange this.
Well, I felt like we were in a little evening excursion during our walk to the restaurant =)
We settled for the typical European Alpine dinner. A cheese raclette grill accompanied with bread, boiled potatoes, a green salad and a plate of charcuterie. How do you eat this raclette thing? You basically grill and melt the cheese with a heater and let it glide on to your plate. Then you eat the melted cheese with the bread or potato.
We enjoyed this dinner a lot. It’s quite an activity when you eat raclette as you have to grill the cheese every now and then. It keeps you busy, not only with eating, but with preparing for your food. Quite fun really and a great idea for families with children.
Moreover, we loved the whole rustic ambiance of the restaurant. There is a fireplace in the middle which provides instant charm and cosiness to the whole cabin. The service as well was very nice, something we did not expect in France, but then again this restaurant is supposed to be fine dining. That must have been the giveaway.
As our French were too rusty to even be let out in the open, we were quite delighted when our servers saved us further from embarassment. They all spoke excellent English!
This restaurant is highly recommended.
Travel Period: January 2016
Destination: Flaine (Rhone-Alpes), France
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Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)