Like all stone mountain houses, Chez Pépé Nicolas, the mountain restaurant in Val Thorens, has its own vegetable garden, created in summer 2012.
In 2020, the team embarked on the project of creating a permaculture garden at an altitude of 1,950 metres (6,398 ft).


                                                    
                      

A desire to have a garden that will provide food for the restaurant

Martial, the chef, and Julie, his sous-chef, are keen to develop the dishes at Chez Pépé Nicolas. What could be better than having a garden with herbs, edible flowers and vegetables to encourage us to innovate, invent and experiment.

This garden is and will be a source of inspiration for all the dishes on the menu.


                                                 

 

A commitment to the environment and a desire to work with short food supply chains

The Pépé Nicolas family – Margot, Valentin, Magali and Thierry Suchet – commissioned Christophe Gonthier, a landscape designer based in Chambéry, to help them create a mountain garden in accordance with their shared concern to protect the environment.

An invitation to contemplate the rhythm of the seasons

The creation of the garden will take several years, following the seasons. During this first year, the team has prioritised creating the different cultivation spaces. Next year, we’ll be putting in place 10 fun panels to enable visitors to discover:

• different permaculture techniques – a herb spiral, vegetable gardens, mounds, terraces and a small pond – adapted to the mountains
• historical anecdotes about the gardens of the past in the Belleville valley: the legend of Blessed Paul, the story of the Ruisseau des échauds, which flows into the pond, the edible flowers, removing stones around St Martin de Belleville, etc.

A unique view over the Belleville valley

The 30-minute trail also includes a viewpoint that offers a breathtaking panorama of the Belleville ridges: Cime Caron, Peclet Polset – and the Lac du Lou trail.