The French Alps are associated with skiing, but their best season is summer. From mid-June to mid-September the lifts run, the refuges open, the trails are clear and accommodation costs about half what it does in February.
Chamonix: the concentrated version
Chamonix offers the greatest visible vertical relief in western Europe: Mont Blanc rises to 4808 metres a few kilometres from the town centre. The Aiguille du Midi cable car lifts visitors to 3842 metres in twenty minutes, which calls for a careful pace and warm clothing even in August. For walkers, Lac Blanc and the Grand Balcon Sud give the most complete views of the massif, with four to five hours of walking and a manageable climb.
Annecy: mountains and water
Annecy combines a lake of unusual clarity, an old town threaded with canals and summits reachable in a day. The cycle route around the lake runs forty almost flat kilometres on a dedicated path. The Tournette hike demands real fitness but looks down on the whole lake. Municipal beaches are free and the water reaches twenty-two degrees in August.
The national parks
The Vanoise and the Écrins offer quieter high country and a dense network of refuges. A three to five day hut-to-hut traverse costs around 55 euros a night with half board and no camping gear. Marmots and ibex are visible without any particular effort.
Level and safety
French mountain trails are well waymarked, but the weather turns quickly. Summer storms usually build in the early afternoon: leaving early and being back down by three is the basic rule. A thousand metres of ascent means roughly three hours of climbing for an average walker. Ankle-height boots help and poles make a real difference on the way down.
Budget
A two-star hotel night in Chamonix runs 90 to 140 euros in August against 200 or more in February. Summer lift passes cost 35 to 70 euros a day. Many valleys give free local buses to visitors staying in the area, which means the car can stay parked.
Beyond Chamonix and Annecy
The southern Alps are drier, sunnier and considerably quieter. The Queyras, close to the Italian border, holds some of the highest permanently inhabited villages in Europe and a light that feels Mediterranean rather than alpine. The Vercors, west of Grenoble, is a limestone plateau cut by gorges, with cliff roads carved by hand in the nineteenth century. Both offer the same scenery as the famous valleys at noticeably lower prices, at the cost of longer approach drives.
The Alps in summer cost less and give more space. It is the best value anywhere in France.