CHAMONIX-MONT BLANC
Alpine Museum and Crystal Museum
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or often more simply Chamonix was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics and one of the oldest ski resorts it France. Chamonix is famed for its proximity to Europe’s highest mountain Mont Blanc, loved by skiers and mountain climbers and enthusiasts since the turn of the last century. So connected, the mountains name was officially tied to the name of the town. Today the cable car lift to the Aiguille du Midi (see Aiguille du Midi Cable) it is possible to get to the world famous ski runs of the Vallée Blanche within a half an hour (see Ski Chamopnix mont Blanc) or to the Sea of Ice (Mer de Glace) glacier by cog wheel train in not much longer (see Montenvers Railway). But the Alpine history of the mountain climbers and adventurers who discovered and promoted the excitement of the high Alps can be explored in Chamonix at three intertwined museums in the heart of the village.
The first adventurers,
mostly Englishmen, published accounts the magnificent mountain in the mid18th Century. The first to climb Mont Blanc itself in 1760 was the Genovese, Horace Bénédict de Saussure, whose statue stands in a promenade in town with the mountain over his shoulder. Mary Godwin Shelly, the author of “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus”, wrote of Mont Blanc during her stay in Geneva with Percy Shelley in 1816 (see Villa Diodati Gothic Summer) publishing a popular journal of their travels (see Rhine by Rail). By 1821, the growth of mountain tourism to the area had grown so much in popularity that an official Alpine Guide society was formed, the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix and later the French Alpine Club.
Alpine Museum
The Alpine Museum (Musée Alpin ) is located in a once grand hotel of the Belle Epoch age, the Chamonix-Palace, an impressive space all its own of grand stairways, one of three original palace hotels to be built in Chamonix at the beginning of the 20th Century to serve the elite of the European Grand Tour. The museum has two floors covering the history of Chamonix from the first visitors who came to wonder at the “Glacières de Savoie”, to the advance winter sports, with a range of exhibits from recreated Alpine wooden huts and rooms to historic climbing gear and art works. A collection of prints around the space, most on loan, illustrate the changes to the valley between the 18th and 20th centuries and the coming of the cable cars and mountain trains, as well as photographs, historic tourism posters relief maps, ancient artifacts and local clothing and costumes.
Crystal Museum and Espace Tairraz
In a more modern space, half buried underground in a concrete bunker is the new Museum of Crystal and the Espace Tairraz. With more modern interactive exhibits, the Espace features more recent mountaineering activities from free climbers to high Alpine explorations. And sharing the same space is the Crystal Museum (Musée des Cristaux), an exhibition of the collection of the Mineralogy Club of Chamonix, a stunning display of the extraordinary variety of crystalline minerals that have been discovered in the local Alps and the massif of Mont Blanc, featuring the unique local smoked quartz varieties and pink lumenescnt fluorspar. Other minerals on display iin the glass cases are from the Lesage Collection acquired by the town of Chamonix and others on loan from private collectors.
Visiting Chamonix Alpine and Crystal Museums
Admission to the Alpine Museum is €6 for adults, with a reducted concession of
€4.50 and children under 18 are free. Entrance to the Alpine Museum allows
free access to the Crystal Museum and the Espace Tairraz (or vice versa).
Opening times for the museum are daily (except Tuesdays) from 2 PM to 6
PM and 10AM to noon and from 2 PM to 7 PM on holidays. © Bargain
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Chamonix Tourism Museums
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See Also:
AU COEUR de MEGEVE HOTEL
MONT BLANC SCENIC FLIGHTS
FONDATION PIERRE GIANADDA - MARTIGNY
