Winter at Chez Colette

The mountains, no snow chains

There are two ways to eat a real fondue savoyarde: eight hours of driving to Savoie, or a walk into the heart of Chauvigny. The second one saves you the ski pass.

Chez Colette is not turning into a mountain chalet: no animal hide on the wall, no cowbell above the bar. The setting stays as it is; the cooking and the light change. Out come the jumpers, down go the lamps, and the room takes on the warmth that a caquelon in the middle of the table brings all by itself.

Melted cheese has this particular quality: it cannot be eaten quickly. It is cooking that makes you stay, pass the bread and the wine, and talk between mouthfuls. With friends or family, it is the dish that holds a table for two hours without anyone looking at their phone. Conviviality is not a selling point here, it is a consequence of the cheese.

The winter dishes

The Savoyard specialities, cooked here, with fresh produce chosen for its quality as it is the rest of the year. Savoie is a long way off; the care taken over the produce is not.

La fondue savoyarde

Melted cheese, bread, and the caquelon in the middle of the table. The most convivial dish we know.

La raclette

Charcuterie, potatoes, and the cheese running at just the right moment.

La tartiflette

Reblochon, potatoes, bacon, out of the oven and scalding.

Le Mont d'Or

Bound in its strip of spruce, baked in its wooden box, eaten with a spoon. It is not there all year: its season runs from September to spring, and that is what makes it good.

Les pierrades, and proper meat

Everyone cooks their own piece on the hot stone, their own way, to their own liking.

Generous salads

For whoever does not fancy cheese. There is always one at the table, and they are allowed to eat too.

And wine to go with it

A white from Savoie on a fondue is not an affectation, it is what carries it. A small selection, good regional wines too, and the choice is made at the table: we guide you.

Tuesday to Saturday evening

The Savoyard sets are served in the evening, Tuesday to Saturday. On Sunday and Monday the establishment is closed, in winter as the rest of the year.

In winter there is no tapas menu: it comes back with the fine weather. The evening is still for sharing - the caquelon in the middle of the table, the raclette, the charcuterie board - and coming as five of whom two do not eat cheese is still a workable evening: pierrade, entrecôte, lamb shank or a salad.

Lunch does not move either. The set lunch carries on, traditional cooking rewritten every week from the market, Tuesday to Saturday.

A welcome, an address

Chez Colette is in the heart of Chauvigny, twenty-five metres from the market square. Bar, restaurant and tapasserie in the same house, a warm setting and a welcome without ceremony: you can come for a fondue for six, for a glass at the counter, or to discover the cooking without yet knowing what you will eat.

Coming from Poitiers, it is twenty-five kilometres on the D951, about twenty-five minutes, and there is no mountain pass on the way. The Vienne now has somewhere to eat a raclette without leaving the department.

And if you are walking up to the medieval city during the day, we have written down how long each visit takes, and when to eat in between.

The questions

Our full opening hours, the address and the phone number are at the foot of this page, with the practical details for finding us.

What people say

Customers who pushed the door open and wrote about it on Google. We do not choose the words and we hide none of them: it is all readable on the listing.