Haute-Savoie: Going All Out

With soaring Alpine peaks, verdant valleys and serene lakes bordered by elegant towns, Haute-Savoie is a haven for all who adore the great outdoors, as Caroline Bishop discovers.

- Caroline Bishop

It’s not hard to imagine how impressive Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc, must have appeared to two English explorers who encountered it on a trip to Chamonix, in the south-eastern corner of Haute-Savoie, way back in 1741. William Windham and Richard Pococke fell in love with the mountains and glaciers around this small village and wrote so enthusiastically about it in a published travelogue that they are credited with sparking tourism in the area. By 1770, when the first hotel opened in Chamonix, it was named L’Hôtel d’Angleterre in honour of all the English tourists who had followed in their footsteps.

They’ve kept coming ever since. Not just to Chamonix, which remains arguably Haute-Savoie’s most famous resort (the first Winter Olympics were held here in 1924, cementing its reputation for winter sports), but to the area’s many other resorts, which are just as well endowed with natural riches. From the shore of Lac Léman (also known as Lake Geneva) in the north to Mont Blanc on the Italian border in the south, the department’s 4,388km2 surface area encompasses four mountain ranges that between them create some of the most stunning scenery in France and a giant natural playground for anyone who loves the outdoors. With 718 ski lifts, 51 lakeside beaches, 22 golf courses and 58 paragliding take-off points, this isn’t a place you easily get bored in. No wonder its biggest town and capital, Annecy, on the shore of the pristine-clean lake of the same name, is known as the European capital of outdoor sports.

With all this on offer, it’s obvious why millions of foreigners visit every year and why many, including nearly 4,000 Brits, have chosen to make Haute-Savoie their home, syncing their lives with the rhythms of mountain life.

OUTDOOR SPORTS