Gite Michel Fagot

Gîte Michel Fagot offers great value for money, with clean rooms, spotless bathrooms, and a super cosy restaurant (La Grande Tablée) where you get a solid breakfast and a tasty, varied three‑course dinner as part of the half‑board. Add to that the driven, energetic and above all incredibly friendly manager Ameline, supported by a fantastic team, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a truly wonderful stay in a stunning valley.

4 months ago

The gite is perfectly positioned at the TMB start but let's itself down on the inside. The staff were great, the food was basic but ok, the private room we had was a mattress on the floor and poor value for what we paid. I thought the shower with no external door was poor too and a shock for anyone walking past.

7 months ago

Hopefully you won’t have the same experience we did and I’m sure many have had a pleasant stay. However, reviews are averages and when it does go wrong here you are attacked by the owner! Expensive for a 2 bunk (4 bed) room, no sheets/towels (you get a blanket and flat pillow) and shared shower (routine for all TMB refuges)- 348€ but does include dinner and a simple breakfast. Superficially shower looks ok but temperatures varies significantly and needs a good clean with a lot black/orange mould growing in corners/grout. One shower available has no door. No soap in soap dispensers (you should bring your own soap if doing TMB). There are plenty of other places in Les Houches to stay and I would recommend looking around. It will be easy to find dinner and get a picnic even if starting early. Delicious boulangerie/patisserie also selling coffee across the road open early as an alternative for breakfast/picnic options. The bread at breakfast was stale which is odd when you have a bakery next door. 10min walk from here to the Bellevue cable car if you want to skip the walk up/down mountain on TMB. We got up early and caught the train 15mins into Chamonix (we did the TMB in the clockwise direction, not the standard way). Below is the specific account of our issue so feel free to stop reading here if after general opinion only! We booked here for the last night of TMB through the website (montourdeumontblanc). We had prepaid the 348€ months before (where you pay a 50€admin fee for them booking all refuges for you) and then had pre booked lunches (13€ each) which were to be paid directly. I realised we didn’t need them as we were headed to Chamonix so emailed to cancel 2 days prior to the booking. No one checked on arrival whether we wanted a picnic. After dinner we received a bill for drinks and our picnics. My husband went to pay and explain and was told that he couldn’t cancel and that we were emailed that. I then went to sort out, had to wait a while (restaurant was busy so that’s fine) but the owner/manager got so angry at us, yelling in the restaurant and then upstairs at our room in front of our kids (we had paid the drinks bill but the tax had been included in the picnic price so had left out the 6€tax). She said she had responded in the afternoon saying it couldn’t be cancelled and was already made. She said she had to pay the TMB group a percentage of the picnic but wouldn’t state what that was when I offered to pay it, as ‘it didn’t matter, picnics were already made’. When I said I hadn’t received her email, that my phone had ran out of battery late afternoon she said ‘oh that’s convenient’ sarcastically. My husband went and plugged my phone in but I still hadn’t received 🤷🏼‍♀️. She loudly accused me of calling her a liar. Her offer was that I pay for 2 picnics and she would ‘give’ me all 4. It was not well received when I stated that I hadn’t wanted them to make any picnics. The interaction ended with her storming off and a ‘whatever’. Anyhow! It was all quite odd and stressful and something most people would want to avoid on a holiday. I really hope she doesn’t treat her staff the same way!

8 months ago