Chambéry
Posted: July 14, 2026 Filed under: France, Savoy Leave a comment
A passion: traveling and seeing the places on the map come to life.
Reading the history of Savoy, Chambéry came up again and again. A 30-40 minute train ride from Annecy, we decided to have a morning’s look.
Chambéry sits in a nice, elevated spot on a mountain pass, near Lac du Bourget. It’s a good location. Says Claude:
Together, these features turned Chambéry into the natural “hinge” between Italy, France, and Switzerland — a role formalized when the Counts (later Dukes) of Savoy made it their capital in the 13th century, since holding this valley meant holding the keys to Alpine trade and military movement in the region.
The most distinct attraction in Chambéry is the Elephant Fountain, commissioned by Benoit Boige:
Benoit Boigne, the son of a Chambéry glove maker, left in 1769 aged seventeen, to join the Irish regiment in Louis XV’s army. He then tried his luck in the Russian navy, was captured by the Turks, escaped, was shipwrecked in Egypt, and finally joined the Madras regiment of the East India Company. In India, his career took off; after just six years he became the commander-in-chief of the 30,000-strong army of the Maharajah of Sindh. Boigne accumulated a fortune and thirty-five years after leaving Chambéry, he returned and spent his wealth, and the last twenty-eight years of his life, reshaping the capital of Savoy.
(so says John Dormandy in A History of Savoy: Gatekeeper of the Alps)
Sometimes this elephant statue is called “les quartre sans cul,” the four without asses, which sounds kind of like Les Quatre Cents Coups, Goddard’s movie, and thus is the kind of wordplay French people enjoy I guess.
There is something distinct about Chambéry, the Savoy quality, the Alpine influence.
It was very hot the day we visited. This may have accounted for the empty streets. Real Rick Steves vibes as the medieval town revealed itself to us.
We lunched at Le Sporting, right next to the church. The birds and the quiet French chatter of the elderly lunchers was a very soothing acoustic accompaniment to the prawns cooked in calvados.
(that’s maybe not everyone’s way of mentally engaging with travel).
Chambéry was the capital of Savoy for two centuries. It maybe peaked by the year 1563, when Duke Emmanuel Philibert moved his capital to Turin, in what’s now Italy. Chambéry still kept a Senate (one of three for Savoy, it seems like this was more like an appeals court) and the Chamber of Accounts, so there was government business. At times the traveler can imagine himself as a 16th century visitor arriving on some annoying business and looking for lodging.
Over half of the 800 aristocratic families in Savoy lived in or near the old capital, Chambéry, almost none in the Alpine valleys. About two-thirds had acquired their titles more than 150 years earlier.
Walking the streets of Chambéry you can still be transported to that era. You can picture the events of an earlier time:
Discontented with a ruling of the ducal council in Chambéry, [Jacques de Montmajeur] and his men stormed into a council meeting, cut off the head of its president, and laid it on the council table.
The de Maistre brothers were Chambéry dignitaries, writers, political figures. Joseph was a monarchist political philosopher who thought the French Revolution was a terrible idea. His brother Xavier ended up fighting with the Russian army. As a younger man, Xavier was sentenced to house arrest for participating in duel. He wrote a whimsical memoir of his captivity called A Journey Around My Room. I took a look at it, there are some interesting philosophical musings. It’s not exactly funny to the modern reader but you can feel how it might’ve been delightful, even hilarious to readers at the time.
(Wikipedia photographer S23725 took that one. I concede my photography is amateur. So what?)
If life were infinity long maybe I would’ve checked out the exhibit of Albanian religious icons at the Musée de Beaux-Arts.
I was trying to photograph this Virgin Mary carved into the building when a Savoyard woman wandered into my shot, creating a much more compelling and memorable photo.
Yes.
from the section on Savoy in Norman Davies Vanished Kingdoms:
Chambéry in the 1850s was a small provincial town still harbouring memories of its past glory. It was increasingly overshadowed both by the nearby spa of Aix-les-Bains, with its boisterous casino, and, across the frontier, by the French city of Grenoble, which was more than twice its size.
Bayle St John liked it: Chambéry is the capital of the province of Savoy; and, it has… a far more complete and metropolitan character than might have been expected. There is no trace of the village about it… evidently a place accustomed to be the seat of government [and] somewhat annoyed to be so no longer… Everything seems to be arranged for making the city a comfortable winter-quarter… During the summer everyone who can afford it disperses… up the lower slopes of the mountains which are dotted with villas…
However, the streets and… the Place Saint Léger, where the band played each evening, were sufficiently well-thronged… The aristocracy of the place being away, the middle classes tried to lord it… I wished to change some English sovereigns. The money-changer had gone to Paris. This is confirmation of a truth… that the English… all go to Switzerland, or only make a dash into northern Savoy to visit Mont Blanc… The fountain of De Boigne, with its four half-elephants stuck together is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen… M. de Boigne… earned a colossal fortune in India… He built the long street through the centre of town, adorned like the Rue de Rivoli [in Paris], with porticos… Then there is the old castle–so many times rebuilt that only a scrap is really old… Underneath the terrace of the castle… not far from the place where Mme. de Warens once [held]… her extraordinary interviews with Jean Jacques [Rousseau], extends a botanical garden.
In 1860, after the events of the Franco-Austrian war, this part of Savoy including Chambéry was ceded to France:
Louis Houssot painted the scene.
Any stocked bar will have a product of Chambéry in it:
As far as I can tell you can’t tour the factory or do a vermouth tasting or anything. (Who would want to?)
A French 2nd class train can get pretty sweaty. A French 1st class train is nice.
Helytimes 
