French Cycling Holidays - A Culinary Odyssey Part 5 The Alps
Alpine Food
Cycling along surrounded by craggy summits, glistening glaciers and rocky peaks, it’s easy to see why alpine food focuses on hearty fare!
But that’s not to say that the locals don’t know the importance of quality ingredients. Whilst those mountain peaks might look foreboding and bleak, the fertile pastures below are home to lush meadows which yield delicious produce.
Alpine flowers and lush pastures
Here are some flavours and dishes you have to try if you join our Alpine Cols cycle tours
Let’s start with the cheese!
Arguably the best cheeses in the world come from this part of France. Intensely flavoured, rich and dense, you can tell the cows and goats were nourished by the grasses and flowers of alpine meadows.
Beaufort
One of our guide David’s favourite parts of alpine riding is the opportunity to indulge in Beaufort cheese, his preference being for the Beaufort d’été (summer), where the cows have munched freely on wildflowers and herbs, and give the cheese an intensely fruity flavour. As we cycle through the mountains in summertime, we’ll pass many herds of cows with their beautiful bells jingling as they tuck into the feast that is their landscape! Beaufort d’hiver is produced from the winter milk that the cows produce in the barns during the snowy season, and the hay gives a sweeter taste to the cheese.
Delicious looking snacks!
Reblochon
This creamy round cheese with a solid rind has an interesting story. It’s a cheese made that harks back to the Renaissance when farmers would have to give the ‘first milk’ to the local abbeys or landowners. The second milking took place in the dead of night and yielded creamier, higher fat milk, and they made this into Reblochon!
Tomme de Savoie
This Savoyard cheese from the milk of the Abondance, Tarine or Montbéliarde cows has a distinctive grey rind and can be made either from cow’s like, goat’s milk “Tomme de Chevre” or ewe’s milk “Tomme de Brebis”.
Only recently granted AOC status (2002), Tomme is typically quite pungent – especially more mature varieties – and the rind is not usually eaten.
Cheese fondue with crusty baguette, cured meats, salad and potatoes
Four cheesy dishes to try in the Alps
Tarte au Beaufort
Imagine Beaufort, mixed with eggs, cream, nutmeg and baked in buttery pastry… Welcome to Beaufort Tart, a very rich but extremely delicious lunch or starter option in an alpine restaurant. Don’t miss it if you’re a Beaufort fan.
Tartiflette
Despite its unctuous flavour, back in the 80s, Reblochon cheese had a bit of an image problem. A marketing guru took on the challenge, and invented a dish using this cheese which is great for melting. Frying up lardons and onions with potatoes and a splash of white wine, the mixture was stirred with some cream and put in an oven dish. Now for the pièce de resistance: a WHOLE Reblochon cheese, sliced horizontally through the middle is popped on top and the dish is popped in the oven to melt enticingly and crisp up on top. Voilà, “tartiflette”! If you’ve even been on a ski holiday to the French Alps, you can’t have missed this in the mountain restaurants – it’s a staple dish for hungry skiers - but equally palatable to famished cyclists!
David has earned a good feed!
Fondue
Whilst the Swiss have a solid claim to have invented fondue, the French have also adopted it as a regional dish in the Alps, but using their local cheeses.
Emmental, Beaufort, Gruyère cheeses are melted and stirred together with white wine and a hint of garlic, and served in a pan at the table for diners to dunk their crusty bread. It comes with a side of green salad and local cured meats. If you like wild mushrooms, look out for fondue with cèpes.
Raclette
More melted cheese! Raclette is a type of cheese that is best melted, and raclette is well-known throughout France as being a perfect convivial winter meal, with many households having a raclette machine: a heated element below which little individual ‘pans’ containing cheese are melted. The crispy melted raclette is poured over potatoes and eaten with a salad and charcuterie (cured hams and salami style sausage). Look out for raclette flavoured with mustard, wild garlic (“ail d’ours”) or even smoked (“fumé”).
Melted raclette cheese over potatoes - one of the best Alpine dishes to try in the mountains.
Aside from the cheese…
Diots: This alpine sausage is very meaty, seasoned and sometimes studded with herbs or leeks, smoked, or flavoured with eg. mushrooms. These hearty bangers are served in a wine, onion or mustard sauce and paired either with tiny pasta squares made of buckwheat flour called “crozets” or polenta (the French Alps have a lot of Italian influences as the Savoie region was once controlled by the kingdom of Italy before being handed to France).
Fish: Lac Léman is also known as Lake Geneva: the Swiss city sits at its southernmost tip, but a significant portion of the waters are within the French border. The “féra” fish swimming in the lake are doubtless unaware of the difference, and pop up on restaurant menus throughout the Alps, its delicate texture making it a popular choice with chefs.
Other alpine flavours to look out for:
- Walnuts: the Grenoble area is famed for its beautiful walnuts, keep an eye out for oils and scattered walnuts in Savoyard salads.
- Mushrooms: when it comes to foraging for wild mushrooms, there are plenty to go around. Look out for cèpes, morilles and chanterelles on restaurant menus.
- Wild blueberries: when we cycle up to the cols, we’ll often pass blueberry (“myrtille”) bushes covering the mountainside after the forests but before the terrain gets too rocky. Myrtille tarts, yoghurts and icecreams are available in abundance!
- Honey: as we cycle around the mountains, there a lots of colourful bee hives dotted in the fields - keep your eyes open for local alpine honey in the markets.
Wild mushrooms are plentiful in the Alps. And if you take your finds to the local pharmacy, they'll advise you on whether they're edible!
To drink
Wine
Although it’s not one of France’s most famous wine regions, that’s not to say that grapes aren’t grown here – of course they are! But not much: the Savoie region is under 5,000 acres (2000 ha) of vines, accounting for a mere 0.5% of the French wine market. In recent years, winemaking techniques and vineyard management have advanced, and there are some really good producers around – ask the sommeliers or bar owners for recommendations. The white wines are particularly good: try a Chignin Bergeron if you can find it!
When it comes to red, if we widen the net further into the Rhone Alpes region we have the wonderful Cotes du Rhone wines: full-bodied and perfect pairings for the rich food of the mountains.
Time for a beer!
Vermouth
Another Italian link: Vermouth is an “aromatised wine”, ie. Wine mixed with some sugar or grape juice, spirit to fortify the wine, and botanicals to give that distinct bitter flavour. In Chambéry, the producer Dolin makes a red, a white and a dry version with 30 alpine herbs, flowers and spices.
Génépi
Something else you’ll have come across if you’ve skied in France where it is lavished upon you as a digestif! Génépi is a sweet spirit with a herbal flavour, which comes from the génépi plant that only grows at very high altitudes, around 2000-3000m. Its harvesting is protected, and indeed banned in the National Parks. Look for less bright green coloured bottles for the best flavour.
Beer
There are many good craft breweries in the Savoie, which is good to know for those thirsty post-ride bar stops! The local brewers put their success down to the pure mountain water. When cycling the alpine cols, keep your eyes peeled for local craft brews!
Book your place on our Cols Mythiques des Alpes cycle tour
Reserve your spot on our French Alps 'Cols Mythiques' cycle tour, and you will have the opportunity to enjoy the cheeses, fondue, raclette and tasty alpine dishes as well as sampling local wines and génépi.
Ready for action? This tour is aimed at riders with strong confidence in their cycling fitness. Daily distances can be over 100 km on mountainous terrain and the tour includes famous Tour de France climbs so cyclists should have the endurance to ride long distances and steep gradients over multiple days.
Alpine cycling tour highlights
- The 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez
- Mont Ventoux, the Giant of Provence
- The Col du Galibier, legend of the Tour de France
- Stunning views along the Lac de Serre-Poncon
- The lunar landscape of the Casse Deserte on the Col d’Izoard
If you have any questions about the riding, don't hesitate to get in touch, we're always very happy to chat.
- fch@frenchcyclingholidays.com
- +44(0) 1923 894305 or +44(0)20 8357 8934
Blue skies and mountains in the French Alps