“I’m sorry, it’s a fine.” On this sunny morning, Marion Guitteny, curator of the nature reserve, describes two young German women who came to bivouac outside of permitted times and the view of Mont Blanc, above Chamonix in the south-east of France, judged.
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It is 09:15 local time (07:15 GMT), tourists have exceeded the tolerated time for hiking camps: 68 euros fine. Restrictions and penal controls are among the measures taken to protect the nature reserve and its lakes from the risks of overtourism.
These alpine jewels offer breathtaking views of the Mont Blanc massif and are an accessible family hike: after a cable car ascent from Chamonix, it takes two hours to reach Lac Blanc at 2,350 m. According to an estimate by the association responsible for nature conservation, an average of 1,000 to 1,500 people per day live on the site in summer.
Photo: AFP
“It’s one of the hotspots to deal with” in the Chamonix valley, recognizes Éric Fournier, mayor of this town in the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc region with around 13,000 inhabitants and 82,000 tourist beds, with summer visitor numbers down 5% have increased in 2022. However, the elected official insists on the “non-representative” nature of the site compared to other natural spaces in the valley, which he says does not suffer from “overcrowding”.
Swimming prohibited
Many come to the lake for a day, but some prefer to sleep on site, in a shelter or in a tent. That night around forty screens were set up around the Lacs de Chéserys, the only place below Lac Blanc where bivouacs are tolerated.
“On the evening of July 14, there were a hundred,” Marion Guitteny recalls. Desires to flee in connection with the “post-Covid” effect characterize this website, which is made popular by social networks.
In order to better contain the number of tourists, the authorities are working on new counting methods. The flow is more difficult to measure than other “hot spots” in the valley, such as the Aiguille du Midi cable car or the Mer de Glace cable car, which sold 345,000 and 205,000 tickets respectively in 2022.
In the meantime, since this summer, the Lac Blanc has benefited from new protection measures: barriers against hikers, self-declaration of bivouacs, bathing ban in July and August, awareness raising for hikers…
Photo: AFP
At lunchtime, the crowds gather at the ideal spot for a picnic with a view. And despite the large signs pointing out the various prohibitions, the embassy sometimes struggles to get through. “We’ve already had to yell at people in their underwear three or four times since the season started when they were ready to swim,” says Marion Armand, the keeper of the neighboring shelter.
pedagogy
Bathing prohibited for safety reasons will be punished with a fine. “I saw it on the signs, it seems normal to me,” said Esther Vos, a young Dutch woman accompanied by her parents, while a young man escaping surveillance fell into the cold waters of Lac Blanc.
Another “scourge” is drones, which are banned in nature reserves. Marion Guitteny intercepts two devices within 15 minutes. “Sorry, we didn’t know that,” pleaded an English couple. “We’re seeing more and more drones,” sighs the curator, who is careful to delete illegal images.
Photo: AFP
Local actors are considering other regulatory measures: strengthening human resources, pricing policy adapted to the type of stay… “We cannot be an open bar”, sweeps the Mayor of Chamonix.
The City Council advocates “a much stronger pedagogy” in the face of a new public that has emerged after the health crisis and is less informed about good gestures in the mountains.
For him, there is no question of setting quotas for access to the Chamonix lakes, as is the case in the Bays of Marseille (southeast) or on the Breton island of Bréhat (west): “It would be an admission of failure” , even as some in the valley are calling for radical measures to limit overcrowding.
On the other side of the Chamonix valley, the attractiveness of the Mont Blanc massif, a mecca for mountaineers and hikers – with more than 20,000 climbers a year – has already prompted authorities to restrict access to the summit to those with reservations in refuges restrict. Setting a de facto quota.