Monuments to visit Haute-Savoie

Always sheltered by its water ditches, this castle fully restored on 15 acres, accessed via a drawbridge, is dominated by a squat and impressive keep. The interior is up, with an interesting decoration and architecture.

It is a tunnel closely monitored since the 1999 disaster - reassuring, therefore - and long 11,6 kilometres, between Chamonix and Courmayeur. Only the width of the tube, which could not be changed, still seems too narrow for the eternal claustrophobes. But for all the rest, what improvements: better lighting and overhaul of the ventilation system, a 100-metre drive, a mid-term rescue station, a combination of French and Italian control rooms and, above all, the construction of an independent evacuation gallery under the road. More fun, the tail of vehicles at the counter: you will have the impression of taking the start of a ski competition, with front of you the small barrier that displays on screen the time allotted before your departure. 10, 9, 8, 7… When it rises, you can start up to the limit speed of 70 km/h and with a spacing of 150 metres between each vehicle, which now seems very well respected. The reason? The multiplication of surveillance cameras, such as tickets.

It was here that the poet-novelist composed her famous poem Paradis à Amphion. On the shores of Lake Geneva, the small pink stone temple houses a central column bearing a golden urn in its rotunda. It contains the heart of Anna de Noailles. It is engraved with a quatrain composed by the poetess and destined for her sepulchral temple. The votive monument, signed by the architect Jose Emilio Terry, was erected in the garden of the Villa Bassara where she stayed for the last time in 1916.