Chinaillon in Summer
For summer visitors the range of activities is endless. There is walking at all levels often from the Chalet door, mountain biking is popular in the area along with parapenting, via ferata, rock climbing, swimming, horse riding and golf.
Le Grand Bornand is where most of the organised summer activities take place, based around the area by the swimming pool complex. The source of all information and booking of activities is the Tourist Office where there are assistants who speak good English to help you. There is a good range of shops including two small supermarkets and a weekly market on Wednesday mornings.
Our chalets are mostly based in the quiet hamlet of Le Chinaillon which is on a high, sunny plateau. Here there is a small, well-stocked supermarket and several shops. It is quiet and has a pleasant rural feel to it. There is a Tourist Office which has English-speaking assistants and is a central point of information and organisation.
Outside the villages the small farms are scattered over the mountainside, many of them selling dairy products at the door. As you go up the mountains you will come across the herds of cattle grazing on the high summer meadows, their bells ringing across the valleys.
In August there is the annual International Children's festival, Au Bonheur des Mômes; a week long festival of puppet shows, theatre, circus acts, mime, juggling etc. There are also lots of workshops and events that children of all ages can participate in. It finishes with a huge firework display and street party on the last Friday night.
There are village fêtes all through the summer in some of the smaller hamlets, including Le Chinaillon's Fête d'Alpage, which celebrate traditional mountain activities. There are sheep dog trials, cattle competitions, wood sawing and chopping demonstrations and local food and drink in abundance.