Most French huts allow you to cook your own food and have a room known as a 'Salle hors sac'. The guardians don't like it much as they make their money from food but you are entitled to do it. I've done so in the Argentiere with a with my own stove with no problems.
Can you buy screw thread gas canisters from chamonix? i know threaded aren't usually available in France but iv read on some forums that you can get them.
Back in the early 1980s threaded gas cartridges were quite hard to get hold of in Chamonix - it was either Camping Gaz or nothing. I think you could get plain butane ones from hardware stores as they are used for blow-torches. By 1985 it was relatively easy (if expensive) to get EpiGas (as it was then) butane/propane cartridges.
In this week's Friday Night Video, we follow Robbie Phillips and friends to Siurana, Catalunya, where he aims to regain some sport climbing fitness to tackle James Pearson's Le Voyage. It had been a decade since Robbie had been on a Spanish bolt...
Press Release Arc'teryx Climb Academy returns to the Lake District: May 25th – 27th