Chalet de la Floria from Les Nants

The Chalet de la Floria is a buvette at 1,337m on the north slope of the Chamonix valley, a chalet with a creamery, a restaurant and a panoramic terrace that looks straight across at the Chamonix Aiguilles. The Chamonix tourist office lists the walk up from the edge of Chamonix as family-friendly and shaded, and grades it medium for its slopes.

The route the office describes starts at Les Nants, on the road above the town by Le Belvédère, and climbs the Chemin de la Floria, a forest track, past the EDF power station, which was built in 1897. It crosses the Couloir des Nants, joins the Petit Balcon Sud footpath as far as a junction at 1,195m, and then turns left up a footpath across the Couloir de la Floria at 1,240m to the chalet. The same chalet is also reached from Les Praz and Les Tines, in about 45 minutes one way by the office’s reckoning.

From Les Nants the office gives 4.2km and 307m of ascent for the round trip, in about an hour and three quarters, out and back on the same path. Dogs are accepted on a lead only, the regional tourist board records. There is no summit and no glacier on the way; the terrace and its view are the destination.

A family with young children, a rest day between harder walks or an evening after a lift day all fit it. It is not a walk for anyone after high mountain ground, since it stays below 1,350m on shaded paths; the Grand Balcon Nord gives a day directly under the same Aiguilles, between 1,913m and 2,310m, with the Aiguille du Midi lift doing the climbing.