• France Guide

  • Introduction to France
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore France

  • The north
  • Alsace and Lorraine
  • Normandy
  • Brittany
  • The Loire
  • Burgundy
  • Poitou-Charentes and the Atlantic coast
  • The Limousin, Dordogne and Lot
  • The Pyrenees
  • Languedoc
  • The Massif Central
  • The Alps and Franche-Comté
  • The Rhône valley
  • Provence
  • The Côte d'Azur
  • Corsica

• Cities

  • Aix-en-Provence
    
  • Ajaccio (Aiacciu)
    
  • Angoulême
    
  • Avignon
    
  • Bayonne (Baïona)
    
  • Bordeaux
    
  • Caen
    
  • Cannes
    
  • Clermont-Ferrand
    
  • Dijon
    
  • Grenoble
    
  • Lille
    
  • Limoges
    
  • Lyon
    
  • Marseille
    
  • Montpellier
    
  • Mulhouse
    
  • Nîmes
    
  • Nancy
    
  • Nantes
    
  • Nice
    
  • Orléans
    
  • Paris
    
  • Perpignan
    
  • Rennes
    
  • Rouen
    
  • Strasbourg
    
  • Toulouse
    
  • Tours
    

France Guide

The Alps and Franche-Comté

Chambéry

• Accommodation
• Restaurants
• Bars and cafés

CHAMBÉRY grew up around the château built by Count Thomas of Savoie in 1232, and became the Savoyard capital, enjoying a golden age in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Although superseded as capital by Turin in 1562, it remained an important commercial and cultural centre, and the philosopher Rousseau spent some of his happiest years in the town during the 1730s. Only incorporated into France in 1860, modern Chambéry is a bustling provincial town with a wealth of grand Italianate architecture and a strong sense of its regional identity, which can be discerned thorough the colourful red-and-white flags and the "Savoie Libre" car-bumper stickers which you'll see throughout the town.