Every design for Thonon-Les-Bains

Thonon-les-Bains is best known as the historic capital of the Chablais, the old Savoyard province on the southern shore of Lake Geneva, Le Léman to the people who live here, and as a sub-prefecture of Haute-Savoie. It belongs to Grand Genève, the metropolitan area that spans the border with Switzerland.

The Château de Ripaille and its arboretum are the town's best-known sights, but daily life plays out between two levels: the upper town, with its pedestrian streets and the Musée du Chablais, and the lower town around the port of Rives, an old fishing village reached by a short funicular. The Écomusée de la Pêche et du Lac tells the fishermen's story, and the Château de Sonnaz and the twelfth-century Saint-Hippolyte church, rebuilt in Savoy Baroque style, are among its other sights. In 1860, when Savoy voted to join France, many here had been drawn to the idea of joining Switzerland instead.

Trains run to Geneva, Lyon and Évian-les-Bains, but every return ends the same way: the lake opening up below the town, and the quiet certainty of being back.