Chamonix, capital of walking, who could have believed it? And yet! There is something for all tastes and even the most modest. So families and children, fitted with good shoes, take the Flégère and Brévent skilifts to have a quiet walk at two thousand meters, with an impressive view on the range and with only two hundred meters difference in height.

The most frequented of the strolls, is Henri Vallot’s road that threads its way, marvel of marvels, below Chamonix Aiguilles with a view on the Drus. All is in soft descent and the stroll, ideal at early hours or at sunset, does not even show a difference in height.

Of course the Aiguilles enthusiasts will go through the Aiguilles Rouges Reserve, a commented botanical path, to discover with binoculars or microscope the surrounding fauna and flora.

All these hikes are practised between May and September. For the king hike, the Tour du Mont Blanc which lasts from seven to ten days, and crosses France, Switzerland and Italy, going through passes, valleys and ledges, it is necessary to be a good walker and to agree to walk approximately eight hours a day on the tracks of Horace Bénédict de Saussure who made it for the first time in 1767.

To test one’s stamina, you can begin with the hike towards the Lac Blanc which lasts three and a half hours in the ascent and forty five minutes in the descent going through the Montets pass and some ladders.

As for the most gourmet walkers, between one thousand and one thousand five hundred meters high and at forty five minutes from Chamonix at the most, they will go from dairy store to dairy store, following torrents and glaciers to taste fresh mountain cheeses.