When I was in the UK in February I watched "A Cook Abroad" (you can view it on iplayer until 23 March) where Masterchef judge Monica Galleti travelled around the French Jura, being charmed by the local food created and served by small producers. "Getting back to the essentials" was a novelty, in comparison to her usual high-end restaurant dishes that had no connection with the raw ingredients and the people who farmed them. How much I share her appreciation – it's probably the best thing about living in France. In Vaulnaveys most of my food is grown or reared within 5km of our house.
At one point Monica was in a restaurant d'alpage (restaurant in a summer pasture) on the French –Swiss border, and my ears pricked up – surely she couldn't be far from where Juan lives, in Yverdon. As she talked with Norbert, passionate about his way of life, I googled around and found the auberge website: La Petite Echelle.
A few days later I got in touch with Norbert by email, to offer my services as a multi-tasking summer worker, hoping that my recent WWOOFing experience might add credibility to an otherwise weak-looking profile. Our email stream petered out but I wasn't deterred. I had planned to be in the area this weekend for a dance course and I hoped that showing up might make a good impression – the auberge is inaccessible by road in winter so it meant skiing 3km.
Walking inside the dark and slightly chaotic dining room I immediately spotted Norbert at a table, deep in what looked like a business conversation. I wondered what to do next. It was 11.30am and I didn't really have the appetite for the Roesti jambon saucisse salade. But I needed a way to keep me there until he was free. So I placed the order and the huge roesti went down a treat, the jambon de Mouthe and saucisse de morteau label rouge all they were cracked up to be (even though the potato in the roesti was a tad soggier than I've had it the Swiss side of the border).
Afterwards, Norbert spent some time talking with me. La Petite Echelle is more than just a place for a rustic meal in a forest clearing. As the website says, La restauration est en parfaite synchronisation avec l'agriculture, l'écologie, la culture et l'économie locale. And it's this that draws journalists from other parts of Europe, and the US, to learn Norbert's savoir-faire. I learned a curious fact about restaurants d'alpage: because of food and hygiene regulations they are only allowed to serve products that can’t "go off": bread, cheese, potatoes, salads.
There are a small number of solar panels but no other source of electricity – through choice. (While I was there the electricity board was on the phone, pushing to instal. Mais non. Candles are fine.) Run-off from the roofs is the only source of water for the one shower, for the cattle and for cooking. So no running water (this is true throughout the karst Jura), and no well. In dry years it can be tough.
Norbert is looking for people who can turn their hand to working in the kitchen, serving meals, looking after the heifers (who have to be rotated around six grazing areas), perhaps working in the veggie patch. "Yes, yes!" I cry.
And so I'm excited to say that I may well be spending some time at the Petite Echelle this summer. Norbert has suggested a couple of weeks, to start with, to see how we like each other. Between now and then I will decide if this is a fantasy or reality. Right now it seems a very attractive proposition.
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