When Americans think of French culture, most of us think wine and cheese, fine arts, and romance. This hilarious video sums up the stereotype up pretty well.
Despite these classic stereotypes, there is a more wild side to French culture that deserves equal recognition. The best place to find this maverick spirit is in the French Alps, home to fresh air, spectacular views, and a lot of quirky adventure seekers.
Having been in Paris for two months, I needed to escape the city life. I called up my friend studying in Madrid, convinced him to scrap our Oktoberfest plans and instead head to Chamonix, an iconic ski town on the French-Swiss border which doubles as hiking and adventure sports destination in the off-season.
On the six hour train ride down, I met a local French girl from Chamonix who told me that the valley epitomizes the spirit of French adventure seekers and is home to world-class climbers, base jumpers, parapenteurs, and extreme skiers, in addition to Europe’s highest peak, Mont Blanc. Contrary to Parisians, the Chamonixois (sham-mo-nee-wah), the nickname for locals, are known for being casual, open, and rowdy.
Eager to get the local scoop, I asked for some hiking recommendations. She recommended summiting Mt. Brévant, a 2,500 meter peak with beautiful view of Mont Blanc. “Very steep, but fun,” she added, as if one didn’t contradict the other.
That night, we arrived at the cheapest hostel we could find: Le Vagabond. Ready to show off my French, I was surprised to find that most of the staff were native English speakers. When I asked the bartender why there were so many Brits, he quickly let me know that he was Irish and explained the town was more or less an international colony for adrenaline junkies. He added that the Brit Edmund Hillary, the first to summit Mt. Everest, regularly hiked Mont Blanc before conquering the Himalayas. Steeped in confidence, we set out at dawn the next morning to summit Brévant and headed to the grocery store to buy the essentials: a French baguette, Camembert, ham, and Swiss chocolate.
On the trail by 9:00 a.m., we sported tennis shoes and athletic shorts to summit Mt. Brévant. Our pacing wasn’t any better than our equipment. After starting at a brisk pace, the altitude hit us quickly. We managed to ascend half the trail by lunchtime.
On the way up to the summit we encountered an elderly French couple, who told us this was their tenth consecutive day hiking in the valley! After, passing them confidently, we heard a yell about 5 minutes later from our new friends. We had taken a wrong turn and were headed in the completely opposite direction—a humbling moment for two overconfident Americans.
When we finally made it to the summit, the view was well worth the hike.
After breaking out the chocolate to celebrate, we realized sunlight was fading, so we packed up, descended, and stumbled into our hostel three hours later, just in time for happy hour, where locals and travelers come together to share their day's worth of stories.
Back at the hostel, our Hungarian roommate shared pictures he snapped while parachuting over the valley, while our French roommate spoke of a beautiful hike alongside the Mer de Glace, an alpine glacier traversing the valley near Mont Blanc.
This sort of casual, open recounting of amazing adventures made me realize that Chamonix might well be the antithesis of the negative stereotypes surrounding French culture—that the French are overly proud and particular, that they only enjoy the finer things in life, and they don’t have time for pesky tourists.
If these stereotypes have any kernel of truth (which they don’t), then the Chamonixois and the internationals that call Chamonix home are the exception to the rule. These casual and open risk-takers are friendly, warm, and genuinely want to hear your stories, even if they can’t compete with wingsuit descents or backwoods skiing.
One thing is for sure: if you want to have better stories to share, visiting Chamonix isn’t a bad idea.
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