Ferme-Auberge du Forlet

The Forlet farm is a traditional marcairie built in granite, tucked into the glacial cirque below the Gazon du Faing ridge. The Lochert family works some forty hectares of meadow and upland pasture with a dairy herd of around twenty-five cows, and its cellars still ripen the Munster, Bargkass and tomme cheeses the valley is known for. Below the farm, Lac du Forlet, also called Lac des Truites, spreads its 2.8 hectares at 1,061 m: the highest of all the Vosges lakes. The kitchen only runs for half the year, the length of the summer grazing season.

• 1Open from 1 May to 1 November only, and closed on Tuesdays. The rest of the year the kitchen is shut.
• 2Book on 03 89 77 49 22: it is more than advisable at weekends and during the holidays.
• 3Access is by a dirt track. Cars can drive up to the inn for visitors with reduced mobility; everyone else finishes on foot.
• 4Cheque is the only payment method listed by the tourist office. Ask on the phone before you head up.
• 570 seats inside, 50 on the terrace: a small table for a summer Sunday, hence the booking.
• 6This is the natural stop on the three-lakes loop: after Lac Blanc and Lac Noir, the Forlet comes around the eleventh kilometre.
• 7The farm sells its cheese on site, and there is a charging point for electric bikes.
• 8Allow around twenty minutes by car from Orbey to the Col du Wettstein, then the walk up.
• 9A table and a terrace, but no rooms: the Haut-Rhin farmhouse-inn association does not list it among those offering accommodation.