Open-Air Museum

At Librairie Sauvage, owned by Louise Jeantet and Louis Paturaud, even the walls tell a story — a beautifully preserved fresco from the 1920s depicting the mountains of the valley. A little further along, at the Columbia boutique, visitors come as much for the displays on the walls as for the latest collections. On show are works by the celebrated Marcel Wibault, instantly recognisable depictions of the Mont Blanc massif, which he both painted and explored.

A little further along, a sweeping trompel’œil mural spanning 160 square metres of façade honours twenty icons of mountaineering. Around the emblem of the legendary Compagnie des Guides, you can spot Jacques Balmat, of course, but also Marie ParadisServante and Henriette d’Angeville — the first two women ever to summit Mont Blanc. A discreet key helps visitors match faces to names — a quick lesson before a quiz at the end of your stay.

More minimalist in style, on the façade of the Super U supermarket, portraits of mountaineering and skiing pioneers from the 1900s — which once adorned the muchloved Pâtisserie des Alpes — have survived the passage of time. And along the banks of the Arve, graffiti turns poetic: a blackandwhite portrait of Gaston Rébuffat, painted by Sonia Guiollot, accompanies these words from his wife: “In audacity lies enchantment.” And it’s hard to tell which gleams brighter — the homage to the guide, or the truth within those few words.

Lucien Boucansaud and Guillaume Pierrel have seen the Virgin Mary — in fact, they’ve seen seven. The two mountaineers followed in the footsteps of their predecessors, covering 130 km and 16,000 metres of elevation gain in ten days to reach seven mythical peaks of the massif (the Drus, the Grépon, the Peuterey…) where statuettes of the Virgin stand guard. Their journey inspired the sublime documentary La Madone, a multiawardwinning film that received the Jury’s Choice Award at the 2025 Chamonix Film Festival.

Much lower down, the Vallorcine village church has had a tasteful artistic revival with twelve contemporary stainedglass windows by Father Kim En Joong, a South Korean priest and artist. The colours burst with light — illuminating even the dullest of winter days. In Chamonix, the SaintMichel Church has embraced a touch of spiritual pop, thanks to two stainedglass windows by Grenoble master glassmaker Louis Balmet. One depicts Bernard de Menthon striking down a serpenttailed devil with his mountain staff; the other is thought to be the only portrayal of Saint Christopher in the world shown beside skiers and bobsleighers in sleek, early20thcentury racing suits.

High on the roof of the Maison des Artistes, a weathervane features two skiers slicing quietly through the wind. And above the Mont Blanc Pharmacy, a miniature stagecoach recalls a time when travellers reached the valley by horsedrawn carriage — after crossing three mountain passes and enduring a freezing night. A work of art in itself — time captured in motion.