Mont Blanc and snowboarding. The three towns and their communes which surround Mont Blanc are Courmayeur in Aosta Valley, Italy; and Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and Chamonix in Haute-Savoie, France. The latter town was the site of the first Winter Olympics. A cable car ascends and crosses the mountain range from Courmayeur to Chamonix, through the Col du Géant. The 11 km (7¼-mile) Mont Blanc Tunnel, constructed between 1957 and 1965, runs beneath the mountain and is a major trans-Alpine transport route. The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc was on 8 August 1786 by Jacques Balmat and the doctor Michel Paccard. This climb, initiated
Gabriel Davioud are the popular Saint-Michel Fountain in Place Saint-Michel, the old Palais du Trocadéro (demolished 1937), and the two theatres at the Place du Châtelet (the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Théâtre de la Ville.) In 1868, Davioud succeeded Jacques Landry as mayor of Houlgate, where he stayed until 1871. His mandate was interrupted when he was appointed "capitaine du génie" during the Franco-Prussian War. Noted for his work in Paris, he built a single villa in Houlgate, "La Brise", on the "Route de Caumont". Gabriel Davioud Jean-Antoine-Gabriel Davioud (; 30 October 1824 – 6 April 1881) was a French architect.