CR Adventures 290722: TMB Day 4 - Hotel Bouton d’Or (Courmayeur) to Hotel Chalet Val Ferret via Val Ferret

TMB Day 4 starts from the Hotel Bouton d'Or (Courmayeur) a traditional Italian resort in the Aosta Vallry full of character surrounded by spectacular scenery.

The village developed around two ancient churches at the foot of Mont Blanc.
In the past she was known by the spa baths, offering mineral water treatments.

Courmayeur Guides Church of Notre Dame de la Guerison in Courmayeur
But this region has marked its position on the map in 1786, when Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard, two guides from Chamonix, led Horace Benedict de Saussure to conquer the Mont Blanc. Courmayeur became the italian capital of Mountain Climbing.
In 1850, was founded the Courmayeur-Mont-Blanc Guides Company, the first in Italy.

Since the XX century, Courmayeur is one of the biggest ski resorts of Aosta Valley.
offering ski enthusiasts and the contemplatives exceptional views to the chain of snowy mountains of Europe.

The route out of Courmayeur starts with a gentle climb until we reach the pine forest of the Val Ferret where we start the steeper ascent towards Refugio Bertone.
The views of the Mont Blanc massif are fabulous albeit we've endured a little drizzle on this particular day.
We continue along the undulating trail towards Refugio Bonatti with the Mont Blanc massif on our left and the Mont de la Saxe on our right.
Our journey continues along the trail until the turn off point towards the Chalet Val Ferret located in the valley some 300m below via a steep decent.

The Chalet Val Ferret is a beautiful hotel boasting a long family tradition that has its roots at the beginning of the last century. Today the Chalet is managed by Marcella and Attilio with a great passion and a commitment that is handed down from generation to generation.

A Little History of Courmayeur
The city of Courmayeur rises at the foot of Mont Blanc, at 1224 meters. of altitude. Surrounded by the beautiful mountain panorama, between glaciers and larch and fir woods, Courmayeur is one of the most famous tourist destinations in the Aosta Valley.

The city has nevertheless managed to maintain the authentic atmosphere of the mountain towns of the region, with its shops selling typical products and crafts and the characteristic houses with sloping roofs.

All around, the valleys of the Dora della Val Veny and the Dora della Val Ferret, which flow into the Dora Baltea.

The reassuring and imposing presence of Mont Blanc, with its 4810 meters, makes Courmayeur a fairytale town, nestled in the great valley on the slopes of this extraordinary mountain relief … absolutely unmissable the crossing of Mont Blanc, to be done by cable car, with a spectacular view of the glaciers, the snow-capped peaks of the alps and the beautiful alpine botanical garden Saussurea.

The history of the city of Courmayeur
The city of Courmayeur was born in Roman times, around the 1st century BC, as an area for the extraction of gold-bearing quartz and as a crossing point towards France. The most important testimony about the existence of the city in Roman times is certainly a cremation tomb dating back to the 2nd century BC.

In the 8th century the first church was built, located in Val Veny, in the small town of Adesivo. In the following centuries, the growing population increase led to the birth of new villages around the city.

Starting from 1032 Courmayeur was also affected by the policy of the Savoy, and it was in this period that the main noble families of the city, those De La Tour and De Curia Majori, assert themselves. About three centuries later, in 1337, still under the Savoy government, the mining activity began in the area, with the iron mine in Val Ferret, the iron was then transported to Switzerland, to Orsières, for processing.

From the seventeenth century Courmayeur began to become famous as a spa resort, the properties of the waters of its ferruginous thermal springs are in fact very appreciated, so much so that the city led to the creation of the first spa hotel, Hotel Union, with housed in the Tower of La Court .