DEPARTURES TRAVEL GOURMET GETAWAY 34 brilliant young chef Jean Sulpice, 40, snagged two for his rebooted version of the legendary L’Auberge du Père Bise in lakeside Talloires. It’s safe to say that Annecy is just as delectable as it is picturesque. WHERE TO EAT At L’Auberge du Père Bise (perebise. com), Jean Sulpice’s inventive modern Alpine cuisine relies on the best seasonal produce from the surrounding Savoy region and runs to dishes like omble chevalier, the prince of Alpine freshwater fish prized for its delicate flesh, in an intriguing violet infusion, and beef smoked in juniper boughs. If freshwater fish is a delicacy found on many Annecy menus, it constitutes almost all of the menu at the Clos des Sens (closdessens.com) where chef Laurent Petit has won two Michelin stars for his brilliant kitchen based on these delicacies. “Alpine fish, including crayfish, fera, perch, and omble chevalier, must be cooked carefully and garnished with subtlety and restraint to avoid overwhelming its fragile flavours,” explains the chef. Chef Marc Veyrat is the one who first coined the modern idiom of Alpine cooking, and at La Maison des Bois (marcveyrat.fr), his restaurantcum-hotel in the village where he grew up, the kitchen is guided by what he calls “le bon sens paysan” (the good sense of peasants). What he means is their ability to eat off their own land, produce their own food and waste almost nothing. Basking in the new glow of his just-awarded third Michelin star, the chef aspires to the do the same thing at his restaurant, which serves dishes like trout cooked inside pine bark served with a beurre blanc or clay-baked pigeon served with a peppery wild watercress sauce. Above: langoustine in gelée de Berce at La Maison des Bois; below: L’Auberge du Père Bise’s sophisticated dining room Originally trained by Marc Veyrat, chef Yoann Conte’s personal take on Savoyard peasant cooking at his eponymous restaurant Yoann Conte (yoann-conte.com) in an elegant lakeside villa has won him two Michelin stars. Expect dishes like veal sweetbreads smoked over smouldering pine cones and served with grilled leeks in a savoury vinaigrette. For an excellent meal at a less exalted altitude and price than those with a rack of Michelin stars, head for the recently opened Kamouraska ( kamouraska.fr), a relaxed new bistro with a large communal white marble table is perfect for a night off from fancy food. Chef Jérôme Bigot does offbeat dishes like caper and Tandoori spiced cashew sausage and salt-and-sugar cured mackerel with roasted coffee beans and Jerusalem artichokes. And because simple pleasures are often the best ones, stop by Pierre Gay ( pierre-gay.business.site), the finest cheese shop in Annecy, which has been run by the same family since 1935, for picnic supplies or edible souvenirs of Alpine cheese to bring home. WHERE TO STAY The Maison des Bois, Restaurant Yoann Conte and L’Auberge du Père Bise all have very comfortable, beautifully decorated rooms. The choice here is between the mountainside setting at the Maison des Bois and the lakeside settings of the other two. Otherwise, for a taste of history, consider Abbaye de Talloires (abbaye-talloires.com), which celebrates the 1,000th anniversary (yes, that’s a full millennium) of its founding as a monastery this year. Now a hotel, it’s hosted everyone from the French Emperor Napoleon III to Mark Twain, who wrote about it in his “Travel Letters from 1891-1892”, and Paul Cézanne. The best rooms here are the Lake View ones, which have gorgeous vistas over the lake and come with parquet floors, beds with goose-down duvets, a mix of antiques and contemporary furnishings, and some boast exposedbeam ceilings. The hotel has a small but pleasant spa and a private beach, and the nearby Giez Golf Club offers majestic views of the Alps. WHAT TO DO Arc en Ciel (arcenciel-annecy.com) gives private boat tours of Lac d’Annecy in beautifully restored 1930s vintage mahogany boats. And for sporty types, the 40km Le Tour du Lac d’Annecy is one of the most beautiful bike circuits in France, takes about three hours to do in its entirety and primarily follows the shoreline of the lake. FROM TOP: RICHARD HAUGHTON, FRANCK JUERY
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