Abondance valley and Chablais cheeses

In 1436, the Abbey of Abondance commissioned a Lombard painter to decorate its cloister with late Gothic frescoes, including a rarely preserved Cycle of the Virtues in this Alpine setting. Just 30 km from Evian, those walls echo the rise of a cheese recorded as early as 1381, feeding travelers over the Bassachaux pass (1,778 m). Around it, cooperative dairies stack AOP Abondance wheels, tommes, and local blues, while Châtel faces Switzerland via the Pas de Morgins. Between lake and pasture, you follow the monks–turned–farmers who shaped summer grazing and its strict rules.

Your dedicated driver in Evian keeps the pace unhurried: hotel pick-up, a comfortable Mercedes on standby, the scenic road via Publier and La Chapelle-d’Abondance, and flexible stops when curiosity strikes. You tour while he drives, you taste while he waits. Morning at the abbey and a maturing cellar (90–180 days of affinage), a lunch of rösti and cheese crust in Châtel, then a short 20-minute walk to a high pasture to read the summer flora in the milk. Return along the south shore of Lake Geneva, evening light gilding Evian’s waterfront.