Eating at a farm inn: how it works

The ferme-auberge, the farm inn, is a Vosges institution, and it often puzzles first-time visitors. It is not a mountain restaurant: it is a working farm that also feeds whoever comes by. You eat what the farm produces, at the hours the farm is able to serve, and that changes everything. The marcaire meal The word comes from the marcaires, the herders who took their animals up to the high pastures for the summer. The meal named after them nearly always follows the same order: a savoury pie, then pan-fried potatoes with smoked meat, a Munster from the farm, and a tart to finish. It is generous, and it is meant for people who have been walking. Three addresses near the gîtes Auberge du Riesenwald sits on the heights above Rimbach-près-Masevaux, about ten minutes by car and right on a hiking trail. Hearty family cooking from the farm's own produce: bacon, sausages, cheeses, home-cured ham. Ferme-auberge du Baerenbach, in Sewen, cooks with what is grown on site and has a terrace and parking. Meat-free dishes are available. Ferme-auberge du Lochberg, in Kirchberg, is run by the Kippelen family on the north-eastern flank of the Baerenkopf, above the Lachtelweiher lake and facing the Doller valley. They serve the marcaire meal, along with baeckeoffe and sauerkraut. Two things to do before you go Book a table. These are small dining rooms and they fill up quickly at weekends. Check the opening days, which follow the season rather than the calendar. The Lochberg, for instance, opens weekends and public holidays from mid-April to mid-June, then daily except Tuesdays and Monday evenings until mid-September, and weekends only again until the end of November. The others work the same way, with their own dates. One phone call before setting off saves a long drive for nothing. We are happy to give you the numbers when you arrive.