Mushrooms in Chamonix

For the longest time, we watched with envy how people in the autumn wandered out of the forest behind our chalet in Chamonix, with bags filled with mushrooms. The very best are the delicate, beautiful chanterelles, which the locals call “girolles”.

We tried several times to find a guide to help us identify the areas where mushrooms could be found. To no avail.

“Ah non, Monsieur”, we would invariably hear, “c’est secret !” In Chamonix, the information on where to find chanterelles is kept tightly inside families, and only transmitted from father to son (not always!).

We thought of several stratagems to overcome the local omerta. One of them consisted of going to the pharmacy of Les Houches, our local village, with a bag of not very appetising-looking mushrooms and asking the pharmacist whether they could be eaten. “Oh no”, she said, “they are awful, you need to throw them away!”, to which we responded by asking which mushrooms were edible (“girolles” was of course the answer we received) and then casually asking where they could be found. The pharmacist, a young and athletic-looking lady, took a deep breath, then said: “They are found in very special places. I go to pick them almost every day during this time of the year. My grandfather showed me. But I won’t tell you where!”

The next idea we had was to befriend the local butcher, who more than once had suggested recipes with girolles. For months, we brought him little presents (a chocolate delicacy here, a small pot of homemade houmous there). Then we casually began to lead the conversation towards girolles. “Ah yes”, he said, “they are everywhere these days. I’ll bring you some the next time I go!” Could we accompany you once, we asked, at which point the butcher would invariably lead the dialogue towards other topics.

In desperation we put ads in the local newspaper and on the supermarket billboard. Would anyone accompany us to find girolles? We received half a dozen answers, all of them with the same message: we can sell you chanterelles and other mushrooms at very good prices!

Earlier this year, we decided enough is enough. Armed with patience, we began to explore the forest. Initially we came home with just a few, small chanterelles. We groomed them as though they were babies, then washed them carefully and finally ate them in awed silence, the way others would eat caviar.

Gradually we found more and more of these wonderful, delicate mushrooms. Yesterday was our best day ever: almost a kilo of chanterelles!

You are welcome to visit us in Chamonix any time. We’d be happy to cook chanterelles for you. As for where they are found…well, that’s a family secret which we might transmit to our children. Or perhaps to our grandchildren. Or perhaps to no one.😉