Buvette du Chapeau in new hands
The Buvette du Chapeau has a new guardian as of this summer. The buvette was established in 1955 by Luc and Gilberte Couttet and was taken over by their daughter-in-law Jacqueline Couttet in 1975. Jacqueline died in 2009 and the snack bar has been run ever since by her English husband, David Morris.
However, the buvette belongs to the municipality and the guardianship is given on a lease basis. The last lease was signed by Jacqueline in 2002 for 9 years. The renewal of the lease was due this spring and last week there was a meeting at Le Majestic to decide the new guardian. There were three new candidates for the role, as well as David who wished to retain the position. Despite having run the buvette with his wife since 1989, David was not renewed as the guardian and the position was instead given to Thierry Couttet.
The buvette is a little snack bar located on one of the walking trails up to the Mer de Glace. One of David's main concerns was that if he lost the lease, the new owners may make the path up to the waterfall accessible to 4x4 vehicles; he had always refused this on the grounds of physical and visual pollution. He would also not like to see the buvette turned from a simple snack bar into a gastronomic cafe, which he feels would be completely contrary to the spirit of the place. As far as we know, Thierry Couttet has no plans to do any of these things, so we hope that it remains the pretty little lunch stop that it has always been.
Source: Le Dauphiné Libéré & Radio Mont Blanc
