The new owners of L’à Coeur give us a warm and hearty welcome which immediately makes us feel happy to be here. There’s a cosy atmosphere and other customers whom we’ve never met nod and say hello, as if to say ‘welcome to this special place’. “We love to welcome everyone ‘comme chez nous’, into our home”, says Philippe, a co-owner, before adding “we’ll spend many hours here during the winter and we want our friends to come and visit us.”
Philippe and Géraldine are a husband and wife team, who together with Marc the cuisinier, whom they knew from their time at La Peau de Vache in Val d’Isère, keep L’à Coeur ticking. There is a fourth member of the team, Pierre, the ‘books’ man, who works part time to keep the paperwork in order, (and there’s a lot of paperwork to do in France!)
As the name suggests, this bistro really is at the heart of Sainte-Foy. The ambience is authentically French, which is something they wanted to share with their clients, especially those from abroad.
“We think of this as a coin des copains”, explains Géraldine, “a meeting place for friends”. This makes sense to me because when I passed by early this morning on my way to pick up a freshly baked baguette from the bakery, there were several ski instructors in L’à Coeur enjoying their early morning coffee fix before heading off to work. And as if reading my mind, Géraldine tells me, “Our first customers walk through the door at 7.45am”
Homeliness is their style and they won’t be forced into being anything other than themselves. They’re not trying too hard and it feels refreshingly natural. All the customers look very comfortable whilst being well looked after.
No surprise then that they don’t have a website, or that Philippe smiles as he tells us that it’s just bouche à l’oreille, ‘word of mouth’. No marketing for this busy little bistro bar restaurant, which I guess tells you all you need to know!
Previously a fromager, cheesemonger, with a love of all things gastronomic, Philippe confides that everything happened very quickly with taking over the restaurant. “Last summer, Virginie told us that she was putting L’à Coeur on the market. We signed the contract on 30th Oct, opened on 26th Nov, and almost before the news got out we were asked to take bookings from the ski club for their pre-season training days. It was a promising start!”
It’s mid morning and Philippe now sits at a table peeling pumpkins and other veg for today’s homemade soup. Marc talks us through today’s menu and explains how this is “La cuisine de grand-mère, ‘great meals with whatever you might have picked out of the garden or found in the cupboard'”. Of course, today the cupboard extends to the supermarket and various local suppliers, but it’s all about using local and seasonal ingredients wherever possible.
Géraldine is putting the final touches to the tables, and adjusting the cowhides to their rightful position on the bench seats. Philippe looks up from his pile of freshly peeled veg to inform us that we are “Listening to French music, even if that sometimes means that some of the songs are in English.”
Philippe, wearing a bartender’s apron and his trademark cap, takes his position behind the bar. There’s an easy banter amongst the staff and with the customers, and although he doesn’t know it, there’s something of René from ‘Allo Allo’ about him. It’s accidental genius!
As lunchtime approaches, the restaurant fills up with locals coming in for their plat du jour. Richard and Sandra from SkiSet come here most days, and say that they’ve never had the same plat du jour twice. A testament indeed to the culinary skills of the chef, Marc.
The kitchen is open from 12h00 right through to 22h00, but the plat du jour is navarin d’agneau today, one of my favourites, so we request an early table. It’s delicious! and we can’t resist sampling the chocolate muffin noisette for pudding. Happy days!
What we weren’t expecting though, was when Philippe donned his liftie’s uniform, and explained to us that he still helps out his old colleagues on the ski lifts for a few hours at lunchtime, six days a week. Much to his amusement, many skiers getting on the Grand Plan chairlift lift ask him if he’s got a twin working in the restaurant L’à Coeur.
Expertly pouring out a glass of wine, Géraldine shares her thought, “We’ve done what we like, and we hope that our friends will like it too, voilà!” We love it that Sainte-Foy now has this type of authentic French bistro in the resort, and the locals love it too. What better proof that this is working could you possibly ask for!
