PARIS: One of France's top chefs, whose food was served at the Paris climate conference, has been fined 100,000 ($161,500) for damaging the environment around his Alpine restaurant.
Marc Veyrat was among five chefs who cooked an "eco-menu" for the 150-odd heads of state gathered to seal a historic climate deal.
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius described the meal, served at a restaurant in a nature reserve, as "a lunch that reflects environmental and French gastronomic excellence".
But a court in Annecy, southeastern France, yesterday found Veyrat guilty of cutting down 7000sq m of forest around his hotel-restaurant, La Maison des Bois in Manigod, Haute-Savoie, without authorisation and drying up 10,000sq m of wetland. The court gave the 65-year-old three months to restore the damaged areas, in particular a bog that is waterlogged six months a year. If he does not meet the deadline, he will be fined a further 3000 a day until he has complied.
La Maison des Bois, a chalet-style hotel-restaurant where rooms cost 520 to 1250 a night, burned down in 2013 and Veyrat has promised to reopen by next summer.
