Discovering the Pays du Mont Blanc

This post is by AWR staff member Tilden Daniels. He is currently traveling in Europe and Morocco.

This past weekend I traveled to the area near the Mont Blanc in France and Switzerland. This entire region is known as the “Pays du Mont Blanc” or “Mont Blanc Country.” I was hoping to do two full days of ski touring with a friend but unseasonably warm conditions and low snow pack made it difficult. But sunny 70 degree days aren’t necessarily a bad thing! It forced us to do the kind of things normally reserved for the late spring, summer and fall.

The Mont Blanc seen from Geneva

When I arrived in Geneva I headed down to the parks and the esplanade along the lake. There is a swimming area known as the Bains Des Paquis, a great reason to bring your swim suit when visiting Geneva. It was a particularly clear day so there were excellent views of the Mont Blanc. Near the Bains Des Paquis there are bars and cafes, so I chose one and relaxed with a beer along side the water with ducks and swans floating by the sail boats. Across the lake I could see the city’s iconic water jet that shoots a spray of water a few hundred feet up from the lake. There were also the familiar silhouettes of nearby mountains including the Saleve and the Mole.

The Mont Blanc seen from Emosson

The next day I went ski touring with my friend Marcos above the Emosson Lake on the border between France and Switzerland about 15 kilometers east of Chamonix. We left Geneva and drove through France to Chamonix and then crossed back into Switzerland to the town of Finhaut to reach the dammed lake. It is a good place for ski touring but also a wonderful destination in the summer time. The landscape around the lake is a natural spectacle with soaring rock spires. The dam offers some of the best views of the Mont Blanc and other big glaciated peaks in the massif including the Aiguille du Tour and the Aiguille Verte. It is, in the words of John Muir, “a revelation in landscape affairs that enriches one’s life forever.” In the summer you can hike to dinosaur tracks preserved in the rocks above an upper lake, enjoy a drink at a small hut, rock climb and relax in the cool mountain temperatures above 2000 meters.

For our overnight we stayed in the Swiss town of Trient below the glacier of the same name. For the evening we crossed over the Forclaz pass and drove down to Martigny for dinner. Martigny is a Swiss city in the Rhone valley approximately 20 miles south of lake Geneva. It includes numerous sites of interest: the Giannada Foundation (a great art museum), Roman ruins, a museum dedicated to the St. Bernard (the breed of dogs, not the saint!), and excellent vineyards (head to an area called “Plan Cerisier”). The town has several good restaurants including the hip “La Vache Qui Vole” (The Flying Cow) located on the main square. You can expect good French and Swiss cuisine along with excellent local wines. For local reds try Dole or Gamay and for whites try Johannisberg, Petite Arvine or Fendant.

Trient, along the Tour du Mont Blanc

After a peaceful night of sleep in the Trient hotel that serves as a possible overnight stopping place on the Tour du Mont Blanc we got up early and enjoyed a generous breakfast including croissants, bread with local apricot jam, cheese, and muesli. We then spent the day climbing at Barberine, a peaceful valley below the Emosson Dam located just across the border in France.

The author in Barberine after a day of climbing

Despite the lack of good snow this spring I had a great weekend and an early preview of summer activities. Visitors should also consider stopping by the other towns in the valleys between Chamonix and Martigny: Vallorcine in France and Salvan and Les Marecottes in Switzerland. These are all authentic towns with active dairy farms and conveniently located along the Mont Blanc Express railway. Along with Finhaut these are excellent places to spend the night and offer great summer and fall hiking opportunities.

Getting There:

Chamonix can be reached from Geneva in a little over one hour by car or shuttle bus. It can also be reached by train from the Eaux-Vives train station in Geneva, but trains run only every two hours, include one or two changes, and take about 90 minutes.

Martigny can be reached by driving east from Chamonix over the col des Montets and the col de Forclaz, by train on the Mont Blanc Express from Chamonix in about one hour, or from Geneva in about an hour and a half by train and in about an hour and a quarter by car. Visitor traveling between Zermatt and Geneva pass by Martigny.

The Emosson Dam (barrage d’Emosson) can be reached from the town of Finhaut in Switzerland. Finhaut can be reached via Chamonix or via Martigny on the Mont Blanc Express. For access to the lake and dam, visitors without a car should then connect to the dam via the Swiss Postal Bus.

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