Chamonix, France. Chamonix - ski resort

Chamonix (France) is the largest, oldest and most famous resort in the French Alps. It is only fifteen kilometers from the border with Switzerland, running along the Col de Montet pass, and fifteen kilometers from the border with Italy, passing through the Mont Blanc massif. All three borders converge at a single point - on the top of Mount Dolent (altitude 3820 meters).

Geography and climate

The valley of Chamonix (France), the photo of which is presented below, stretches for seventeen kilometers from Servo to Vallorcine. There are four communes and many small, original villages, each of which is an excellent starting point for a variety of interesting trips through the Mont Blanc massif, towering majestically over the valley. The number of permanent residents of Chamonix today is about ten thousand people. However, with the onset of the tourist season, the number of people living in the valley at a time increases to sixty thousand in winter and one hundred thousand in summer. In the mountains, the weather is always changeable and can present many surprises: having arrived in the city of Chamonix for a week, you can see ice, sun and snow to the waist. Webcams are installed on the ski slopes, thanks to them you can always get information about the current situation. On low slopes the skiing season lasts from December to March inclusive, in the highlands you can ride until the middle of May.

The legendary city of Chamonix

France is rich in interesting places, but this popular alpine resort has a special energy. Perhaps all the languages of the planet sound on the streets of the high-altitude town. However, people who come here, although they speak different languages, but have similar feelings and thoughts. They are united by a passion for high mountains and the way of life that they give. And the mountains are very close by, they rise every minute above you, whatever you do and wherever you go. Just lift your head: you will see Mont Blanc in your face - 4810 meters of snow, ice, rocks, heroic deeds, legends, dreams of the future.

Family Les Houches

Would you like to share the joy of meeting with Mont Blanc with your children? Then come to Les Houches - a place where you can see an impressive performance, never losing its entertainment. You will see how in all its glory mountain peaks rise over the valley of Chamonix (France), and at their foot, among the hilly alpine meadows, dense forests, hurried mountain rivers, houses are scattered. For the first meeting with the mountains, this is just an ideal place. The village of Les Houches is located just six kilometers from the city of Chamonix and offers a lot of entertainment (both summer and winter) for the whole family. Mountain bikes, snowboard, dog sleds, hiking, skiing ... It's not for nothing that all skiers are looking for, regardless of the level of preparation. The World Cup among men on mountain skiing passes here.

Unspoiled Servo

The picturesque village of Servo is located near Les Houches. From a height of 812 meters to the Mont Blanc Massif, the mountain ranges of Araviz and Phiz, Pormenaz, Le Prapion, Tet Nahr offers a breathtaking view. For a long time, Servo was part of the climbing French heritage, it is well known to fans of rock climbing. The village, comfortably settled at the foot of the mountain massif of Fiz, over the past years did not lose its authenticity, and, like a sentry, stands guard over the valley. Residents keep to this day traditions of handicraft, there are many craft shops, festivals of artisans. With a guide you can visit interesting places, for example, the Alpine Museum, the gorge Les Gorges de Diosaz, the Christmas market and many others.

Natural Vallorcine

And what about that not in the photo, but personally see red squirrels, wild chamois, forest deer? If you come to Vallorcine, then you are on their territory. Lovers in the resort of Chamonix (France), can not help but love this charming village, hidden behind the Monte pass. The unpretentious ascent and the same uncomplicated descent - and you find yourself in another world, a world of tranquility and silence. The pass seemed to cut off Vallorcin forever from fuss and noise, allowing people to merge with the magnificent alpine nature into a single whole. The village, located at the Swiss border itself, has been living in harmony for centuries with untouched fields and forests full of frightened birds and animals. Alone with the wild world that surrounds you, you can make up for a stock of energy, exhausted by city stresses.

First guests

When the young British aristocrats Richard Pocock and William Wyndham first visited the commune of Chamouni in 1741, they could not think about the consequences of this journey. The English told an interesting trip to friends, and gradually more and more wealthy European tourists rushed to Mont Blanc to see with their own eyes a mysterious and beautiful sea of ice - a giant glacier, which the pioneers so admired. Local miners and hunters, who knew mountains well, became guides for them. The beginning was laid!

From Chamouni to Chamonix

In 1770 an inn was opened here - the first swallow of the future hotel boom, which inevitably followed the growth among the climbers of the popularity of the valley. After the conquest of Mont Blanc in 1786, he became particularly violent. Everyone believed that the local mountain peaks are not so inaccessible as it was initially thought. Romantic journalists and writers began to talk about mountains not as a terrible threat, a terrible place, but as a reserve of beautiful nature, preserved in its primordial nature.

Now here along with desperate daredevils and adventurers rushed quite respectable tourists. Having set a new trend for the hotel business, in 1816 the first luxury hotel was built, and in the 1900s in the valley were built as many as three excellent palace-hotel, worthy of any fashionable resort.

Road construction was a turning point in the history of Chamonix. France, thanks to good routes and convenient rail connections, was able to receive guests from all over Europe. During the reign of Napoleon III, in 1866, the first horse carriages appeared on the village streets, and a railway line was launched between Chamonix and the station of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Faye.

Available to all mountains

Chamonix is a ski resort that hosted in 1924 the very first ever Winter Olympic Games. The Olympics turned it into a real Mecca for lovers of winter sports. On the surrounding slopes in the following years, many lifts appeared. First they drove tourists to Planpraz and the Glacier Cable Car, now no longer existing. As the development of the resort of Chamonix, the ski lifts began to deliver vacationers to Le Brevan, Le Fleger, Aiguille du Midi. Today, this alpine territory is not only a popular tourist destination, but also a strategic transport route, due to the tunnel under Mont Blanc connecting France and Italy. Chamonix is a ski resort, striving to maintain an optimal balance between tourist and transport needs for the sake of maintaining a clean environment.

Cross-country skiing tracks

Here lies the legendary twenty-kilometer White Valley - one of the longest descents in the Alps. For professionals, there is a seventeen-kilometer descent of Valle Blanche, the requests of even the most demanding skier will satisfy the slopes of Grant Monte.

Chamonix provides good opportunities for lovers of extreme and off-piste skiing. The ski resort is famous for its schools, where everyone can go skiing. In each region for beginners there are blue and green slopes. Chamonix has such a geographical position that, having passed under the Mont Blanc on the tunnel, you can also go in Switzerland and Italy. A single skiing area, which would be connected by a network of ski lifts, is not in the resort. To the areas of Le Brevan, Le Tour, Les Houches and others will have to take a bus for seven or fifteen minutes. For owners of resort cards or ski pass tickets free. Buses run regularly throughout the valley.

How to get there

From any European capital to get to Chamonix (France) will not be difficult. The nearest airports are Geneva (80 kilometers), Lyon (226 kilometers), Paris (612 kilometers). Directly through the central part of the city lies the European network of motorways. Chamonix is the only ski resort in France that has its own railway station. Several high-speed trains run from Paris daily. Come to Chamonix and enjoy the picturesque views, modern trails, sunny mountain slopes. Unforgettable rest!