TMB Les Houches to Les Contamines
In this series of posts, we will tell our story of our Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) day by day.
This post is the day 1 where we will reach the beginning of the trail in Les Houches and then hike until Les Contamines. This is the official stage 1 of the TMB from Les Houches to Les Contamines.
If you are looking for a complete guide, you can read our full 1/2 TMB guide.
We hiked it, end of June.
Table of Contents
Mapping the day: Les Houches to Les Contamines
Getting to Les Houches
As we are living in France, Strasbourg. We reached the TMB by car, which was the easiest, fastest and cheapest for us.
We left at 5am and drove through France and Switzerland to reach Les Houches. It rained like cat and cow during our journey there, but we made it to the TMB parking by 10:50am. We first parked at the parking lot of the cable car and realized it was wrong and move the car to the right lot.
The parking is located behind the cable car and is free.
TMB Trail Stage 1: Les Houches to Les Contamines
Getting to the TMB
From the car park, we followed another group of hikers going to the TMB. At this time, we all missed the starting point and ended up in another one past the bridge. We then went back and found the official beginning of the TMB at “Résidence Le Grand Balcon”.
Les Houches to Col de Voza
We officially started our TMB at 11:26am and by this time rain had stopped. We hiked up and followed the trail to “Col de Voza”. Actually, there are many options to get there. By mistakes we used an alternate road through the forest.
So, for us the beginning of the trail was in the wood, until we popped out of them at a cable start station. From there we joined back the official trail.
The first part of the trail was a bit challenging for us, especially that we were tired from the road. We reach “Col de Voza” by 2pm. After an ascent from 1008m to 1657m.
Col de Voza
At “Col de Voza”, there was a restaurant opened, public WC, drinkable water and a small train station.
The train ride a couple of times a day and go up to the Eagles nest (Nid D’aigle). If you want to discover some more of the Alps, the Nid d’Aigle is a historical place to go and was used in WWII.
Col de Voza to Fioux and Bionnassay
From there we followed the sign to Fioux and later to Bionnassay. This part of the trail was beautiful as we went through many small villages.
Along this part of the trail, there was drinkable water from the town wells. But we didn’t know it was drinkable, so we ended up really thirsty hehe.
This part of the route was mostly downhill.
Bionnassay to Les Contamines
At this point, the sign of the board was Les Contamines. After a down and uphill to cross the river, we kept on until the last small hike up to Les Contamines through the forest. We must admit, that the last 4km were again quite challenging for us.
Les Contamines
We arrived at 6pm in the car park of Les Contamines were we found a fresh water well. We walked a bit in Les Contamines and then decided to take the last free shuttle bus (6:46pm) to the camping.
If you want to shorten a bit your trail, you can take this free shuttle even before Les Contamines.
We asked the driver where the camping was, and she dropped us in front of it. That saved us a good 30min of trail.
We then checked in the camping, paid 17euro for a camping spot for 2. Ordered a pin of cold beer and went to pitch the tent.
We were altogether 6 tents in quite a big field in the camping. On one side there was mobile homes, the other camping cars and then the tents.
There are 2 sets of bathrooms:
- one smaller one on the side of the camping with 3 squatting toilet and one sitting one. 4 showers with hot water (if not warm, you need to use the main bathroom). At this spot, there are also bigger sink to clean you cooking gears.
- one bigger one, located on the left side of the restaurants. There were 2 bideds, 5 sitting toilets, 5 showers, 4 sinks and 1 har dryer.
The restaurant can serve you hot food and the bar cold drinks. A 33ml bottle Mont Blanc beer cost 5€ and a bin of draft beer 5€
You can charge your electronic in the bathroom were 220V plug are available. And ask to do laundry as well.
The reception closed at 7:30pm but some people came after. So, they just pitched their tent and went to the reception the next morning.
“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” – John Muir
