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Villages and resorts: living spaces open to the world
First and foremost, the Pays du Mont-Blanc is a land of mountain villages and pastures. The mountain slopes and spaces shaped by generations of farmers gives it its unique personality. Hamlets, old villages and towns reflect the inhabitants' ability to adapt to their environment. The emergence of skiing areas and resorts follow this tradition too.
Pays du Mont-Blanc hamlets and villages are jewels set in the heart of unspoilt nature. Always prominent in the landscapes they have preserved the gentle quietness of "mountain islands" reflecting the spirit of the local inhabitants. Yet the Pays du Mont-Blanc has always been in the forefront of technical progress and new ways of doing things. The audacity of the pioneers of "white gold" and the inventiveness of the architects and town planners transformed the territory and adapted the virgin snows to new gliding and riding sports. Without losing its quintessential nature, the Pays du Mont-Blanc has built resorts open to the world through the ingeniousness and inventiveness of top architects like Novarina - the Refuge de l'Envers de Aiguilles, Henry-Jacques Le Même and his "skier chalet", the thermal and medical architecture of Saint-Gervais and Passy and Roger Taillebert's bold architectural solutions for the Aiguilles de Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. As well as the invention of the cable car and the creation of car stations with innovative shapes which have inspired generations of architects. And even if boldness was not always the watchword, it is reappearing today to sublimate the spirit of the mountains. Here, we have preserved the jewels of the past while resolutely facing the future.
