The group in front of Chalet Refuge Lognan, a.k.a. Olivier's.

Olivier's

As we came down out of the Argentiere Glacier on the first day, we saw a small stone building just outside the ski area boundary. Bernie said, "Hey, you wanna go somewhere a little offbeat for lunch?" The building turns out to be "Chalet Refuge Lognan", or as Bernie and all other locals refer to it, Olivier's. Step inside and be welcomed into a hospitable, friendly environment... although one without a whole lot of English.

At left, it seems like the building's been here awhile. At right, Jason shows off the (unchanging) menu of hearty mountain food (warm cheese, warm bread, warm meat). There's no corporate distribution system involved; if you get here after they run out of something, they don't serve you.

	Your basic lunch at olivier's. I think we ate here four times during the week.
	After awhile, we started planning the day so as to happen to be passing by Olivier's at, oh, say, 12:45.
Olivier's (as is common at European resorts) has bottles of a light, fruity red wine that's bottled from local grapes.		After this particular lunch, we didn't ride too hard that afternoon.
Below: Ralphie was another transplanted German who was our guide the last two days of the week (Bernie had to go to an equipment show).	The one bummer about olivier's is that to get back to the ski area boundary we had hike about 15 minutes back up to the traverse to the Grands Montets lifts (unless we got a ride from the le cheval ("the horse") -- in this case a purebred arctic cat breed of horse.	Kim sez, "Do we have to go out again?"

	Between the "mountain food" lunches, the views from the deck, and the beverages, there was often quite a linger outside before we got back to the resort.

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	© 2002 Leo Hourvitz except where noted