French Alps: Lyon, Annecy and Chamonix

Arrive in Lyon

Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport or Lyon Part-Dieu station to your hotel in central Lyon

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Lyon
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week, then leads a gentle walk along the Saône quays as the lights come on across the river. We finish at a restaurant on the Presqu'île for a welcome dinner together, a first taste of the city that calls itself the capital of French cooking.

Compris

• Pick-up at Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS) or Lyon Part-Dieu station
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk along the Saône
• Welcome dinner

Lyon: Les Halles, Fourvière and the traboules

Lyon on foot: Les Halles, Fourvière, Vieux Lyon

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Lyon
• En train

Matin

We start at Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, the covered market, in the morning when it is busiest: your guide buys Saint-Marcellin cheese, rosette sausage and pralines from the stalls for the group to taste. A short ride brings us to Vieux Lyon, where the funicular climbs to Fourvière. We visit the basilica before 10 am, when it is still quiet, and look out from the terrace over the red roofs to the Alps on a clear day. Then we walk down through the Roman theatres and into Vieux Lyon, one of the largest Renaissance quarters in Europe. Your guide opens the doors to the traboules, covered passages that cut through houses and courtyards from one street to the next, with spiral stairs and arcaded galleries hidden from the street.

Après-midi

Lunch is long and sit-down in a bouchon: quenelles, salade lyonnaise, a pot of local wine.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are yours.

Compris

• Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse with tastings
• Funicular up to Fourvière and the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
• The Roman theatres of Fourvière
• Guided walk through the traboules of Vieux Lyon
• Sit-down lunch in a Lyon bouchon

To Annecy and out on the lake

Lyon to Annecy, then the old town and a lake cruise

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Annecy
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive east for about an hour and three quarters, leaving the Rhône plain for the foothills of the Alps, and reach Annecy by late morning, in time to check in or leave the bags. The old town is built around the Thiou, a short river that drains the lake through a grid of canals. Your guide walks you past the Palais de l'Isle, a 12th-century island prison shaped like the bow of a ship, along the flower-hung quays and up to the château above the roofs.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in the old town, where tartiflette and Reblochon from the nearby Aravis valleys are on every menu. In the afternoon, once the light softens, we board a scheduled boat for a cruise of about an hour around the lake, known for its clear water, with the Tournette and the Dents de Lanfon rising behind the villages.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Drive from Lyon to Annecy with your guide
• Guided walk in Annecy's old town: the Palais de l'Isle, the canals and the quays
• Sit-down lunch in Annecy
• Lake cruise of about an hour

The Semnoz above Lake Annecy

Annecy to the Semnoz and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Annecy
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

If the calendar allows, we start in the old town's morning market, among the cheese, honey and charcuterie stalls. Then we drive up the mountain road to the Semnoz, the long ridge south of Annecy, about 40 minutes from town. We go in the morning, before cloud builds over the high peaks, because from the top on a clear day you see the whole lake below and Mont Blanc on the eastern horizon. The walk is easy: about an hour and a half on open meadow paths to the Crêt de Châtillon, the summit at 1,699 m, with an orientation table naming the peaks, and back by a different path through the pasture. In June and July the meadows are full of flowers.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at a mountain restaurant on the Semnoz, then we drive back down to Annecy by mid-afternoon. The rest of the day is free: swim from the lakeside beaches, hire a bike on the lakeside path or sit in a café on the quays.

Compris

• Annecy old town market (on market days)
• Guided walk to the Crêt de Châtillon on the Semnoz
• Sit-down lunch on the Semnoz

Activités en option

• Bike hire on the lakeside cycle path (price shown at booking)

Into the Chamonix valley by the Bellevue balcony

Annecy to Les Houches, the Bellevue cable car and Col de Voza, then Chamonix

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Chamonix
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We leave Annecy after breakfast and drive about an hour and a quarter to Les Houches, at the mouth of the Chamonix valley, watching the Mont Blanc massif grow ahead. The Bellevue cable car lifts us to about 1,800 m, onto a balcony of open pasture facing the Bionnassay glacier and the Dôme du Goûter. The walk from here to Col de Voza is easy and mostly level, about 1.5 km and 30 minutes, or nearer an hour with stops at the viewpoints, on a section of the Tour du Mont Blanc path; you may see climbers heading for the Mont Blanc summit route from the rack railway stop at Bellevue.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at a mountain restaurant on the col, with the whole valley below. Then we ride back down and continue the last few kilometres to Chamonix, our base for three nights, arriving by mid-afternoon. Your guide walks you through the centre, along the Arve river and past the statue of Saussure and Balmat, who first climbed Mont Blanc in 1786.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Drive from Annecy to Les Houches with your guide
• Bellevue cable car up and down
• Balcony walk from Bellevue to Col de Voza
• Sit-down lunch at a mountain restaurant
• Orientation walk in Chamonix

The Aiguille du Midi

Chamonix to the Aiguille du Midi and back

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Chamonix

Après-midi

We come back down late in the morning, and the afternoon is free: lunch where you like, the shops of the rue du Docteur Paccard, or a rest after the altitude.

Compris

• Aiguille du Midi cable car on an early booked slot, with your guide at the top
• Step into the Void (when open)

Activités en option

• The Panoramic Mont-Blanc gondola from the Aiguille du Midi across the glaciers to Pointe Helbronner, in summer (price shown at booking)

The Montenvers train and the Mer de Glace

Chamonix to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace, and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Chamonix
• En train

Matin

A slower morning, then we walk to the station of the Montenvers railway, the red rack train that has climbed through the forest since 1908. In about 20 minutes it reaches Montenvers at 1,913 m, above the Mer de Glace, the largest glacier in France, with the granite spire of the Dru opposite. The glacier has thinned dramatically, and markers on the way down show where the ice stood in past decades, which your guide uses to explain what the Alps are losing. Since December 2024 a new gondola takes you from Montenvers down towards the ice cave, carved fresh into the glacier each year; a staircase remains for the last part, and we confirm its length at booking.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at Montenvers, on the terrace if the weather allows, then the train takes us back to Chamonix in the early afternoon.

Soir

The rest of the afternoon is free before a farewell dinner together, with Savoyard dishes such as fondue or tartiflette if you want them.

Compris

• Montenvers rack railway up and down, and the Mer de Glace gondola (we confirm at booking that it is on the same ticket)
• The Mer de Glace viewpoint and the ice cave, with your guide
• Sit-down lunch at Montenvers
• Farewell dinner in Chamonix

Down the valley to Geneva

Chamonix to Geneva Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

A last breakfast with the mountains in the window.

Après-midi

If your flight is in the afternoon, the morning is free for a final walk along the Arve, a coffee on the Place Balmat or a look at the peaks from the Bois du Bouchet park at the edge of town. Late in the morning we load the minivan and drive down the Chamonix valley, past Les Houches and the bend where the road leaves the massif behind, then along the Arve valley to the Swiss border and Geneva Airport (GVA), about 85 km and an hour and a quarter. We usually arrive around 1 pm. Your guide sees you to the terminal before saying goodbye. If you are staying on, Geneva's lakeside centre is a short train ride from the airport, and we can drop you in the city instead on request.

Compris

• Drop-off at Geneva Airport (GVA)