Discover Hautecombe Abbey on Lake du Bourget in front of Aix-les-Bains.
The origins of Hautecombe lie in a religious community which was founded about 1101 in a narrow valley (or combe) near Lake Bourget by hermits from Aulps Abbey, near Lake Geneva. In about 1125 it was transferred to a site on the north-western shore of the lake under Mont du Chat, which had been granted to it by Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, who is named as the founder; and shortly afterwards it accepted the Cistercian Rule from Clairvaux.
It has sometimes been claimed, but as often disputed, that Pope Celestine IV and Pope Nicholas III were monks at Hautecombe.
Hautecombe was for centuries the burial-place of the Counts and Dukes of Savoy. Count Humbert III, known as “Blessed”, and his wife Anne were interred there in the latter part of the 12th century; and about a century later Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury (1245–1270), son of Count Thomas I of Savoy, was buried in the sanctuary of the abbey church. Aymon, Count of Savoy financed the expansion of a burial chapel at Hautecombe which was constructed from 1331 to 1342.
The abbot Anthony of Savoy, a son of Charles Emmanuel I, was also buried there in 1673.
From there you could also do a cruise on the canal and Bourget Lake or just have lunch in one of their nice restaurant. You could also drive back up col de la Chambotte for a wonderful view of the lake or lunch at the Belvedère.