Le Clos Des Sens

Le Clos des Sens built its name on a radical idea: a near-total commitment to the local. Founding chef Laurent Petit made it Annecy's first three-star restaurant in 2019 — no coffee, no far-flung spices, just fish from the three alpine lakes, vegetables from a 1,500-square-meter permaculture garden, and foraged plants from the surrounding hills. When Petit stepped away at the end of 2022, two longtime members of the house took over — Chef Franck Derouet in the kitchen and Thomas Lorival running the wine and the room — and held onto all three stars without breaking a thing. The cooking leans vegetal and lacustrine: raw féra lifted by a house garum fermented for weeks, aged pike grilled like red meat, every plate scattered with seasonal flowers and herbs. There's a Green Star, and famously it's one of the more affordable three-stars in France. A serene, deeply rooted evening above the lake.