Restaurant Le Faranchin

Hôtel Le Faranchin is located in Villar d'Arène at an altitude of 1,650 meters, in the Ecrins National Park.

Le Faranchin was built by my parents, André and Nicole Amieux, in 1976. I loved hanging out in the kitchen from an early age, and then chose this career path at the Lycée Professionnel, starting my professional career when I was around 18.

Today, David and Sabrina continue the family adventure at Le Faranchin:

Sabrina and I asked ourselves a lot of questions... I tried out a lot of things beforehand, I went to Valence and then to the Ardèche... and it was from there that we decided to come back. When my parents retired and couldn't find anyone to take over the business, Sabrina said 'Let's go' and it was obvious: 'Of course we'll go! So we took over the adventure just over 12 years ago. I look after the kitchen...and my wife looks after everything else! Reception, recruitment, management and so on... she's got it all down!

Initially, we worked like my parents, with lots of meals served, lots of overnight stays...and then there was the Chambon tunnel closure episode in 2018. This led us to ask ourselves what we wanted to do. The answer: renovate the hotel to make it our own and work differently, welcoming fewer people but better.

We realized that we were taking more time to look after our customers, that the cooking was more meticulous and that the work was less stressful!

I was also already committed to working with local produce and minimizing my supply circle: working with local breeders for local meat, sourcing cheese from the Ecrins or using the newly installed market gardener for salads and a few vegetables. The COVID then accelerated this move and, with Sabrina, we decided to close one floor of the hotel to stay at 22 rooms and upgrade to three stars. We then realized that we were in a privileged area, the Ecrins National Park, and that we needed to communicate on this.

We'd already heard about the Esprit parc nationalbrand . We didn't go for it right away, though, as we had other projects on the go. In 2023 we took the plunge, and it's true that it's an approach that suits us very well!

His specialities in the kitchen?

A few years ago, my father put potato pie back on the menu, a traditional local dish that used to be a family affair. It's something we serve all year round now. On Sundays, it accompanies the leg of lamb I source from Le Chazelet. It's an excellent meat from lambs that are raised in mountain pastures.

I try to work as locally as possible around Villar d'Arène, but I'm still sometimes limited by the offers available to professionals. I sometimes go as far as Châteauroux-les-Alpes or Grenoble. We're just at the beginning of a dynamic. If I could work only locally, that would be wonderful.