Servoz, Les Gorges de la Diosaz, top food and water falls

l’Auberge les Gorges de la Diosaz à Servoz Vallée de Chamonix Mont-Blanc is a marvelous restaurant just around the corner from the famous gorges themselves.  I was going to start the post with reminiscing about the gorge walk itself, but then I saw the photos again and its the sumptuous food that is my abiding memory.  So lets start with the restaurant then….

Not bad for a lunch out with the kids hey? 🙂

Its own website describes it as ‘semi gastronomic’, but its listed on the Via Michelin website as charming and good value even though it doesn’t have one of it’s stars. Well we certainly enjoyed our 3 courses for 25Euros, the ladies even treated themselves to a glass of the fizzy stuff.  The children’s menu at 15E didn’t disappoint either.  Given that Servoz is about a 15 min drive down the valley from Chamonix, it probably explains the reason for the good value.  The human touch was added at the end of the meal when the chef Marc Serres tore a strip off his 8 year old for doing pretty similar naughty stuff to our kids.  We offered him ours for disciplining too, but he unfortunately declined.  He didn’t realize we were still on the terrace I might add, but it made us laugh.

The trip is not only worth it for the food (the village has another lovely restaurant we’ll talk about at a later date), but for the walk up to the old derelict chapel of St Michael’s which is about a 3.5 mile round trip from the climbing wall that you see as you enter the village from the main road. – The roadside crag has some extremely challenging overhangs and the south facing schist is hot work in summer, so cooling off in the café opposite can be useful.

The quiet village of course also has the famous Gorges de la Diosaz with its suspended footpath that traces the torrents of water for about a 15 min assent to the Cascade du Soufflet where you can stare down at the abyss. There are many notice boards on the path with information about the local flora and fauna, but the most amazing photos are right at the top showing a helicopter rescue of some misguided canyoners who had to be winched to safety from the pool just above the Cascade de Soufflet. Entrance is seasonal, June to September and between 3.5E and 5E.

Other things you might want to do with the family can be found here.