La Bouitte is the regional outlier — a three-Michelin-star restaurant in the tiny hamlet of Saint-Marcel above Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, in the next valley over from Courchevel but reachable by piste in winter. The father-and-son team of René and Maxime Meilleur are entirely self-taught and run one of the most respected kitchens in France.
The dining room is a wood-panelled mountain chalet, intimate and quiet. The cooking is rigorously local: lake fish, alpine herbs gathered in summer and dried for winter, génépi, beaufort cheese aged for years. It is unhurried, deeply French food at the highest level. Allow several hours; book months in advance.