Champex-Lac

A lakeside resort at 1466 m — flowers, boats, restaurants and a bakery, which after five days of refuges feels almost unreal.

The place

A lakeside resort at 1466 m, and after five or six days of refuges it is faintly unreal: pedalos on the water, geraniums on the balconies, a bakery, and people on holiday who have not walked anywhere. Champex-Lac is where the Tour briefly stops being a mountain expedition and becomes a Swiss village afternoon.

Enjoy it, because tomorrow you choose. From here two routes go to Trient: the Bovine, a forested balcony with one steady climb and a famous alp restaurant, or the Fenêtre d'Arpette — 1200 m up to a boulder-choked notch at 2665 m, the hardest and finest day on the whole Tour. The col is the higher point of the two by 500 m and holds snow into July. Ask locally before committing, and do not take Arpette in bad weather.

Getting there

Booking

This stop is not on the Tour du Mont-Blanc booking portal — it takes its own reservations, so there is no live availability for it in the planner. Contact it directly, early: the well-known ones fill months ahead.

Other places to stay nearby

• Pension en Plein Air Gîte · 1467 m
  0.4 km further along the Tour, at 1467 m. Bookable on the Tour du Mont-Blanc portal, so the planner shows its availability night by night.
• Relais d'Arpette Hotel · 1631 m
  1.7 km further along the Tour, at 1631 m. Bookable on the Tour du Mont-Blanc portal, so the planner shows its availability night by night.
• Auberge Gîte Bon Abri Gîte · 1444 m
  1.8 km further along the Tour, at 1444 m. Bookable on the Tour du Mont-Blanc portal, so the planner shows its availability night by night.

For when this stop is full. These book themselves and are not on the Tour du Mont-Blanc portal — contact each directly and confirm before you rely on it.

Stages passing this stop

• Stage 7: La Fouly → Champex-Lac
• Stage 8: Champex-Lac → Trient