Activities

Spring, Summer & Autumn.

In spring after the snows have melted the hot spring sunshine brings out wild alpine flowers in the lower meadows. Walking at this time of year before the hot mid-summer days amongst the new grass and wonderful variety of flowers is a real pleasure.

The area offers endless opportunities for all manner of activities during the summer months. The walking on marked paths is excellent, ranging from easy rambles in the lower meadows and tracks amongst meadow flowers, to more demanding walking at higher altitude giving the opportunity to experience fantastic scenery and being surrounded by mountains, glaciers, streams, alpine meadows and the rarest of wildlife ranging from flowers, birds and butterflies. All provide a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere. A lot of the higher walks can be reached by cablecars, chairlifts and mountain railways.

Other summer activities include mountain biking. It is possible to transport bikes on chair and gondola lifts to high points and follow mapped and marked trails of various difficulty. There are summer toboggan runs at both Chamonix and Megeve - excellent fun for all ages. Also river rafting, parapenting (paragliding), horse riding, fishing, tennis, mini-golf, and golf courses at Chamonix and Megeve.

The local communes provide a varied programme of activities of all kinds during the summer which includes a week of free evening outside entertainment by the lake in Sallanches often including puppet shows and travelling theatre. There are many fetes and markets taking place through the season and often on public holidays, spectacular firework displays.

Winter

Cordon is a wonderful location to enjoy the winter in the French Alps with a huge variety of winter activities and things to do. The area is family orientated, rarely crowded and very reasonably priced. For non-skiers, there are marked walking paths and snow shoe (racquette) routes.

Cordon has its own skiing area easily reached by the snow bus that stops close to the chalet. There are green, blue and red pistes set in spectacular scenery facing Mont Blanc. There is a ski school (ESF) available for beginners who wish to take lessons.

Cordon is one of the 14 ski stations covered by the 'Pays du Mont Blanc' ski pass which takes in 700 Kms of pistes, 295 lifts reaching from 1000m to 3840m. Ski pistes at Combloux and Megeve are only 10 - 15 mins by car giving a huge variety of skiing for all abilities. Chamonix - 25mins (with it's fabled Valley Blanche run), Argentiere - 40mins and Les Saises - 50mins (with it's Olympic cross country circuit) can be reached easily from Cordon by car.

The local communes also arrange various activities such as skiing and boarding events, dog sleigh racing, hot air ballooning and conventions.

Ice skating is available at both Megeve and St Gervais.