Chalet Etoile

Chalet Etoile is a self catering chalet available to rent in the village of Chinaillon, which is the upper ski station of Le Grand Bornand.  After a long days skiing you may wish to take some of the stress out of the catering for yourselves, here are some ideas:

The local supermarket in Chinaillon The Spar  is run by fluent English speakers, Philippe and Micha.  They can prepare the cheese for fondues and raclettes for you to take home, providing a very traditional and easy to cook meal, that costs a fraction of eating out (they even loan out the equipment if needed).  They can also provide internet shopping with delivery to the chalet, for details contact Philippe . 

A larger ”Intermarche” supermarket can be found on the main road into Thones, about 15 minutes away by car.  If you go past the Intermarche and take the turning to Thones there is also a 24 hour (?) Carrefour on the outskirts of the town, this is a more modern shopping experience than the Intermarche. 

There are lots of fantastic restaurants in the area.  Some favourites of ours are:

Chinaillon

La Bournerie – La Bournerie is a very traditional Savoyard restaurant, serving traditional Savoyard fare only - no chips here!  It is in a beautiful spot at the bottom of the piste.  Perfect if you like cheese!   If venturing to La Bournerie in the evening , which is highly recomended  - beware there are quite a few steps on your way up!!!

Le Jalouvre - our local!  Situated next to the boulangerie, it is perfect for an early morning coffee and the papers when on the bread run!

 L’Entracte – local restaurant with good atmosphere and good food, another favourite of ours.  They also do very good take away pizzas.

Le Chalet Venay - Le Chalet Venay on the road out of the village towards the Col de Colombiere.  This can be booked and accessed on snow racquettes via the Tourist office.

Le Grand Bornand

Le Croix St Maurice - The downstairs bar always has a good atmosphere and does a good array of simple food: pizza, steak, fondue etc.  Upstairs has a wider menu and is more traditional and formal.

Pizzeria Casanova - is a small  restaurant with a good atmosphere and great food, always full of locals !- a real favourite of ours.  One of the owners of this restaurant is Senagalese, so there is always something interesting on the menu.

 La Ferme De Lormay – is a famous and  very traditional family run restaurant in the heart of the Bouchet valley, serving very authentic french food, you will not find pizzas or chips on the menu here! The following is an interesting review of the restaurant from a local wine critic.

La Clusaz

L'Outa -  is one of our favourite restaurants in the area, great decor, great atmosphere, friendly staff, and above all great food for all the family.

Le Chalet du lac -  Le Chalet du lac on the edges of Lac Confins in La clusaz is a truly special restaurant.  The setting is stunning and the food fantastic.  Their speciality is tartiflete - the best I have ever tried, but beware it is enormous! with a salad it would easily feed two!

Lunch on the piste

Unlike many French resorts, you can still find reasonably priced food at lunch time in le Grand Bornand.  A favourite of ours is La Taverne which is a lovely traditional mountain hideaway in a lovely (slightly off the beaten track) location, does the usual fare, but also does a good macaroni cheese for just 6 euros.  The Restaurant Les Terres Rouges, at the top of the Terre Rouges lift is a good value self service restaurant with most meals at approximately 8 euros with smaller childrens portions at 5 euros.  On the way down to Le Chatalet lift the aptly names "Snack bar" is another self service restaurant/hut, which according to most of our family does the "best" burger in Le Grand Bornand (possibly in the world) for just 4.50 euros (without chips) they also serve very good paninis/soup/salads etc at reasonable prices.

See the following article "In praise of lunch on the piste"