My Tegernsee. A love letter to paper, duck, and a hotel owner I have known for years.

When someone asks me where my homes are, I now say three: Hamburg, where my atelier in Lokstedt and my daily life are. Paris, where my suppliers sit and where my eyes stay open. And the Tegernsee valley, where I clear my head and where paper has connected me to the region since I was a child.

I drive into this corner of Bavaria at least once a year, sometimes with my husband Chris, sometimes with our daughters Simona and Antonia. Over the years a handful of places have become favourites I return to every time. Here they are, in no particular order, but with the tips I would pass on to a friend going for the first time.

Where I stay: Landhaus am Stein in Bad Wiessee

The Landhaus am Stein in Bad Wiessee belongs to Simone Schnoor. We have known each other for many years. Simone used to be my agent for Designers Guild, a premium interior brand. Out of the business relationship grew a friendship, and once she had taken over the hotel, it became my natural base at the lake.

The house has the kind of quiet I need when I arrive from Hamburg. If you are looking for somewhere near Bad Wiessee that is not big and styled but personally run, this is the right address.

My paper anchor: the Gmund paper mill

Whenever I am at the Tegernsee, a visit to Gmund is part of the trip. For me this is not a tourist stop but family.

I am a printer’s daughter. My father Rolf Gronau ran his own printing house for decades, my mother Elsbeth was a bookbinder and worked there with him. I grew up with paper, quite literally. I stood next to my mother in the bindery and helped wherever I could. In my father’s typesetting room I put the lead letters back into the type case after each print run.

The only place I ever made paper by hand was at Gmund, together with my mother. Anyone who has once stood with their hands in pulp and watched a sheet emerge from grey mass does not forget that. And understands why I will not put just any paper into my own print orders today.

For the print work that comes out of my Hamburg atelier I source paper at Gmund, among other places. It is German paper tradition at the highest level, and it matches everything we make in our print workshop in Lokstedt: stationery, cards, bookbinding, personalised pieces.

Tip: The factory tours are worth the trip. If you have any interest in material and craft, do them once.

Where I eat: three Tegernsee classics

Weißachalm in Kreuth, the duck inn

The Weißachalm sits directly on the Weißach river, at the end of a small nature trail. Address: Weissachaustraße 51, 83708 Kreuth. Locally everyone calls it the Entenalm, the duck inn. The host, Marianne Högg, has run it for more than fifty years, she is 87 today and has cooked for half of Bavaria in that time. And for quite a few well known guests too.

What I love about this place as much as the food is the walk to get there. The path leads through the Weißach meadows, the river runs quietly along beside you, and on the fields cows stand and look at you as if they had all the time in the world. When I come from Hamburg this is the quiet I need in the first days.

I have been going since my earliest Tegernsee trips. Every single visit.

Mandatory: pre-order. Call ahead and reserve the duck with red cabbage and dumplings. Without a pre-order there simply is no duck, it is only prepared on request. It is the best duck I know.

By the way, I keep running into customers from the concept store on the terrace. The Weißachalm is apparently a Tegernsee secret that we Hamburg regulars share.

Freihaus Brenner, the lake view

Freihaus Brenner in Bad Wiessee is run by the Jäger family. On a clear day I sit outside, the view across the Tegernsee from there is one of the most beautiful in the valley. If the weather sends me indoors, then always into the Salettl, the small room with the particularly cosy atmosphere.

The food has been reliably good for years, a place to come back to. My tip: Pork roast and Kaiserschmarrn. Bavarian, properly done.

A few names from the neighbourhood: Günter Sachs lived next door for years, and today the former FC Bayern president is in residence there. That does not turn Freihaus Brenner into a celebrity stage. The kitchen and the Jäger family are reason enough on their own.

Voitlhof, modern-traditional with mountain view

The Voitlhof is where I go when I feel like something unusual that still has Bavarian roots. The service is very attentive and the kitchen dares things I rarely find elsewhere: vanilla ice cream with pumpkin seed oil for example, a simple idea, but it works beautifully. The terrace has a lovely view of the mountains.

Wildbad Kreuth: the old bath becomes a sanatorium again

Slightly above the lake sits something special: Wildbad Kreuth. Anyone familiar with the region will know the name from earlier years. The CSU held its strategy meetings here for decades, politics that shaped the country happened in these walls. In recent years the site was used as a pop-up hotel.

Today the hotel and restaurant are run by Korbinian Kohler, also known as the hotelier behind Bachmair Weissach. Kohler took over Wildbad in 2021 on a long lease, originally as a luxury hotel project. He has since changed direction: Wildbad Kreuth is to become again what it once was, a sanatorium for body and soul. I find that a wonderful decision. It is much more in the spirit of the region than yet another high-end hotel.

Worth watching how it develops. Worth visiting already, for the location and the atmosphere of these old walls.

My favourite shop: Fellners in Bad Wiessee

Fellners is not a restaurant but a shop for liqueurs and fine spirits. You can order, but the better way is to come in person and taste on site. And the reason I keep going back is the owner himself. He is a character, knows everyone in the region, and can entertain you wonderfully. I will drive out of my way just for his quips.

A nice detail: you can have liqueurs bottled with your own label. We have done this for the concept store more than once.

My tip: Red vineyard peach topped up with Prosecco. Summery, light, something special in the glass.

When I am in Munich

On the way to the Tegernsee or back I happily stop in Munich. Two addresses are fixtures.

Waldwirtschaft Großhesselohe

Waldwirtschaft in the south of Munich is tradition. A large beer garden under old trees, Munich as it should be. When the weather plays along it is one of the loveliest beer garden afternoons you can have.

Emmeransmühle

The Emmeransmühle is my Munich insider tip. Even the way there is special. You drive through a corner where you think nothing more will come. Then a beer garden opens up between the trees. Inside, the atmosphere is properly Bavarian and cosy, without being over-decorated.

My tip: Kaiserschmarrn and pork roast from straw-raised pigs. A classic done right, nothing more is needed.

Why I keep coming back

The Tegernsee has changed a great deal in recent years. But the backdrop has stayed, the nature has stayed, and the people I know there have stayed. For me this region is always worth the journey. Sometimes it is the piece of order I need from Hamburg.

Diesen Beitrag auf Deutsch lesen: Mein Tegernsee. Eine Liebeserklärung mit Papier, Enten und einer Hotelchefin, die ich lange kenne.

The three-homes series continues. Hamburg and Paris will follow in the coming weeks.

Until then, you can look behind the scenes of my bookbinding atelier, into the letterpress workshop and into the embossing studio in Hamburg-Lokstedt. And for the Paris bracket: how a Paris map is made in my atelier.

Personalised gifts and paper work from the atelier are available in the Concept Store.

Trixi Gronau has run her Concept Store in Hamburg with its own print atelier since 1995. In the nineties a regular at Susanne Otto (then the only Chanel address in Hamburg, Milchstraße), at Boutique Amica run by Ina Gärtner, and at Chippis Bazar run by Mary Burose. Invited to vernissages at Galerie Levy (Pop Art and Surrealism, Hamburg-Pöseldorf).

Warmly, from Hamburg