Chamonix Town Square (Place du Triangle)

The Place du Triangle de l'Amitié is the small plaza in the middle of Chamonix where visitors arrive and get their bearings, and it is best known as the home of the main tourist office. The tourist office there offers brochures, bus information, maps of the walking and cycling routes, and tickets for excursions, among them the cable car to the Aiguille du Midi, the little rack railway to the Mer de Glace and trips toward Mont Blanc. Free Wi-Fi and a welcome desk adapted for visitors with disabilities make it a practical first stop. The square is a few steps from the main street, the church and the river Arve, so it is the natural centre of town from which every other attraction can be reached on foot.

The town itself lies in a narrow valley at the foot of Mont Blanc, the highest summit in the Alps at about 4,800 metres, whose glaciers and needle-like granite peaks rise directly above the streets. The sight of the white dome of Mont Blanc over the roofs is something that never loses its effect. Chamonix became famous as the cradle of alpine mountaineering. In 1786, the local crystal-hunter Jacques Balmat and the doctor Michel-Gabriel Paccard made the first ascent of Mont Blanc, and the following year the Genevan scientist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who had offered a prize for the first climb, reached the summit himself. A statue of Saussure and Balmat, with Balmat pointing up toward the summit, stands in the town and is one of its best-known monuments. In 1924, Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympic Games.

Near the square stands the Saint-Michel church, built in the nineteenth century in a Savoyard style, which marks the old centre and gives its name to the Place de l'Église. Around it, the pedestrian streets are lined with cafés, restaurants, mountaineering shops and chalet-style hotels, with a lively atmosphere in both summer and winter. The Musée Alpin, in a nineteenth-century building, tells the story of the valley and of the first climbers, with ice axes, photographs and costumes, and the Chamonix Market sells local produce, cheese and cured meats.

From the town, the mountains offer many options. The cable car to the Aiguille du Midi climbs to a platform at 3,800 metres, with some of the best views in Europe, and the Montenvers railway runs to the Mer de Glace, the longest glacier in France. Le Brévent, on the other side of the valley, gives a panorama of the Mont Blanc range, and Les Houches and the Chamonix Valley offer walks, ski slopes and bike trails.

The square is free and open at all times. It suits anyone starting a stay in Chamonix. Weather in the mountains changes fast, so check the forecast before you head up.