Down at the ski lift a gang of midgets has rolled up. They’re all riding miniature mountain bikes with full face helmets, while occasionally crashing into each other. I look closer and see they are in fact very small children, their happy faces just visible inside the helmets. It’s a school day and the class, along with their teachers, are about to ride the ski lift up to the top to descend by mountain trails. It looks a lot more fun than any of the school trips that I ever went on.
Here in the alpine village of Arâches-La-Frasse, like all the villages of Haute Savoie Mont Blanc, outdoor activities are not so much obligatory as sought after eagerly, and they start here very young,
The snow that provided such superb skiing all winter in this corner of Haute-Savoie, close to Chamonix Mont Blanc, has retreated to leave meadows now lush with green grass and ablaze with wildflowers. It’s a walkers’ and hikers’ paradise at this time of year, with the sun shining hot out of a clear blue sky, but the elevation above sea level is keeping the air pleasantly fresh, while the views are never anything but breathtaking.
Up in that clear air, paragliders soar like technicolour eagles, while down on the ground powerful electric mountain bikes for adults can be hired in most towns and villages for private rides or rides with a guided group up mountains or around vineyards.
Swap skis for pedals
I tried the latter out, and even at my age, sixty-seven, I found the climb from the village up the lower parts of the mountain fairly easy, thanks to the five-stage electric motor and nine classic gears.
It was hair-raising, yet enormous fun, on the descent. The heavy bike yearns to go fast, but on the slippery stones it’s best to rein it in or face a tumble. Plus, you want to take frequent stops to be able to drink in the ever-changing vertiginous views of this unique landscape.
It’s odd to see familiar places like Chamonix denuded of their snow. Many visitors who ski have never seen this side of the region, and that’s a shame. Out of ski season, the area has a whole different feel, the locals and visitors more relaxed and less ‘good time’ focused. It’s a season to be active, but in a relaxed way, on bikes, on hikes, on water rapids and on climbs, to visit vineyards, linger over lunches of local cheeses, hams and beer, and even to go to the ‘beach’ by the lakes for sunshine and cool bathing.
Mountain gardens and cake
Villages like Samoëns in the Giffre Valley of Haute-Savoie are quiet and pretty. The name is said to come from ‘seven mountains’, referring to the towering limestone peaks that surround it. Here you can hang out in the traffic-free centre with timeworn stone buildings and cobblestone streets, where a coffee and gorgeous cake in the shade is a reward after a visit to the Alpine Botanical Garden Jaÿsinia, with its 4,500 mountain plants, divided into 2,500 species over 3.7 hectares (9.1 acres).
This beautiful garden, created in 1906 by Marie-Louise Cognacq-Jaÿ, rises almost vertically up a limestone cliff, but its meandering paths make the ascent easy. Entrance through the original wrought iron gates is free and guided tours will take you up to the top. Here, its ruined mini-castle once defended the elegant town and its 16th century Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption church, the work of the world-famous Masons of Samoëns (frahans), limestone stonemasons who once made up nearly all the men of the village.
Chamonix out of ski season
The Alps of course dominate the region. Back in Chamonix, I was lucky enough to get a quick preview of the newly remade Musée du Mont-Blanc that was just a week away from opening. There were still people pulling wires through conduits and balancing precariously on stepladders, but I saw enough to appreciate what a very modern museum it is, with all the interactivity you’d expect.
The museum celebrates Alpinism and the people who were brave, or perhaps foolhardy, enough to first ascend the heights and discover new routes. There’s even an ancient wooden climbers’ shelter on display that was lifted down from the mountain in one piece by helicopter. Of course, it’s also sobering to see how much the snowline has retreated over recent times. The glaciers are shrinking a bit each year.
Melting snow needn’t be all bad, though. It’s well worth getting up to the Cascade de Rouget in Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval, a waterfall of staggering power and size that’s fed by the snow melting higher up. It falls tumultuously for over 80 metres and the mist it creates can sometimes close the road close by. You can also walk up to it, which takes about forty-five minutes.
Relaxing in sulphurous steam
If you feel in need of some pampering after a strenuous walk, and fancy a good steak cooked over wood, then the Thermes of Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc is the place to go. The steaks are served up in the village at the traditional Le Galeta, while at the spa, originally created in the early nineteenth century, natural spring water at around 39°C pushes up from the depths well-fed in minerals including sulphur, magnesium, silicon and copper. The outdoor thermal pool is ringed by towering pines and is the perfect place to reset both body and mind, even though when I was there, a rain squall suddenly came over.
The elegant Hotel Le Saint-Gervais, a classic alpine hotel very tastefully modernised inside, is good to pass the night before walking a few metres to the base station of the Tramway du Mont Blanc. It’s now, since its recent extension, the highest railway in France, climbing above 2,000 metres above sea level.
It takes about an hour for it to clamber up its toothed track to the terminus, Nid d’Aigle—the Eagle’s Nest. The views on the way are stunning and ever-changing. Out of the window, you can also see how the track snakes left and right to ease the gradient, a remarkable feat of engineering and determination.
At the top spectacular mountain scenery stretches in every direction. The station building was once a climbers’ refuge, but is now a smart café. Here, those who’ve walked all the way up can get a tasty reward, while the less fit, like me, who’ve arrived by train, can get ready to make the descent on foot, aided by gravity. It’s not difficult, but an Alpine pole and suitable shoes are good accessories.
Walks here are in fact very much what you want to make them, ranging from pretty easy to very challenging indeed. Descents are easiest, of course, and most of the ski lifts now carry walkers up to various heights; some can even accommodate bikes as well. It all runs like clockwork, perhaps because of the proximity to Switzerland? After all, Chamonix is just seventy-five minutes from Geneva by car.
Pack your boots
My final non-strenuous walk took me from Col de Joux Plane high above Samoëns, to La Bourgeoise, and its 360° panorama of the region. Wide open fields of flowers, soundtracked by the ‘clank clank’ of the happy cows chowing down, led to a spectacular view of Mont Blanc and its permanently snow-covered peak.
I encountered a group of about fifteen French people in full walking gear who had made a long trek from across the valley. ‘How old are you all?’ I asked, rather cheekily and their leader thought about it for a moment.’ Eh bien,’ he said,’ the youngest here is 74. I am 80.’
Which neatly goes to show, the delights of the Haute Savoie Mont Blanc region out of ski season really are for everyone.
FACT FILE
FLY: EasyJet flies to Geneva from London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester, and Bristol.
STAY:
- Hotel Neige Et Roc, Samoëns Haute-Savoie, a traditionally styled chalet hotel.
- Rocky Pop Hotel, Les Houches, a quirky hotel for young backpackers
- Le Saint Gervais, Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, a beautifully classic hotel restored from a 1920s mansion
MORE INFO: Haute Savoie ont Blanc Tourisme