This is perhaps the most famous resort in the French Alps. Its popularity may be due to the fact that the town’s convenient location makes it easy and unique to reach Italy. The tunnel carved through Mont Blanc stretches for 11 km, and on the other side lies another ski resort — Courmayeur.
The Alps and the valley of the Arve River, a tributary of the Rhône, impress with their dazzling white winter landscapes. The town is located in the Haute-Savoie department, where there are many wonderful resorts, with Chamonix-Mont-Blanc considered the finest of them all.
The population of Chamonix is quite small — fewer than ten thousand residents live here — yet every year the resort area welcomes about three times as many tourists. The currency of France, as in other European Union countries, is the euro.
The history of Chamonix-Mont Blanc is connected with the names of young British aristocrats, W. Wyndham and R. Pocock, who visited these places in 1741. So we can say that Chamonix-Mont Blanc was founded just in these years. At that time there was only a small village among glaciers and ridges, founded God knows when.
But visitors from all over Europe wanted to see the marvelous "Sea of Ice" of Mont Blanc's White Mountain. And by 1770, the first real inn was opened here. The valley became more and more popular, in 1908 a railroad was laid here, and in 1924 the world's first Winter Olympics were held. Since then, the resort has been considered an almost sacred place for fans of winter sports.
The valley with the same name stretches along the Swiss border. The main towns are Les Houches, Les Bossons, Chamonix, Le Pra, Argentiere, Mont Roque, Le Tour and Vallorsin.
