Les Avants

Origin of the name Les Avants

Name origin: not explained by the sources consulted, which give no dated early form. The inhabitants are called Avenouds and Avenoudes.

Founding of Les Avants

Les Avants is not a municipality: it is a village of the municipality of Montreux (district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut), at the foot of the Cubly at about 1'000 metres, in the geographical centre of the municipal territory. From 1798 it was one of the seventeen villages of the former municipality of Le Châtelard, which merged with Les Planches in 1962 to form Montreux. No founding act is known from the sources consulted: originally a farming village, Les Avants became a tourist destination when, around 1850, doctors praised the benefits of altitude. Louis Dufour senior built the first hotel there in 1873, the Grand Hôtel, and the Dufour family made Les Avants one of the first winter sports resorts in Switzerland.

History of Les Avants

1798. Les Avants is one of the seventeen villages making up the municipality of Le Châtelard, in the district of Vevey.

around 1850. Doctors highlight the health benefits of altitude, attracting an international clientele.

1873. Louis Dufour senior builds the first hotel in the place, the 110-bed Grand Hôtel; his son enlarges it in 1900 and 1911.

1876. The Dufour family has a chapel built for the hotel guests (1872 according to another source, to be cross-checked).

1899. A newspaper account describes « une file interminable d'au moins trois cents lugeurs » (an endless line of at least three hundred sledders) on the slopes above Montreux.

1901. The Montreux-Oberland Bernois railway (MOB) reaches Les Avants.

1904. Canadian ice hockey is introduced by the Princes Ice Hockey Club of London, described as a first in Switzerland.

1905. Completion of the Jaman tunnel, linking Les Avants by rail to the Pays-d'Enhaut and boosting tourism.

1910. The Les Avants ice rink hosts the first European Ice Hockey Championship. On 9 December, the Les Avants-Sonloup funicular is inaugurated.

1912-1913. HC Les Avants wins two Swiss ice hockey championship titles.

1915. On 31 October, the Société des Intérêts des Avants (SIA) is founded.

1920s. Ernest Hemingway stays in Les Avants, at the Pension de la Forêt.

1943. A stained glass window by Margaret Chilton (Edinburgh) depicting Saint Peter is installed in the chapel; a porch is added in 1946.

after 1945. The Grand Hôtel closes after the Second World War and becomes the Le Châtelard international boarding school (to be cross-checked).

1959. In August, Noël Coward buys a chalet in Les Avants, which he names Chalet Covar; he lives there until his death in 1973.

1962. The municipality of Le Châtelard merges with Les Planches: Les Avants is henceforth part of the municipality of Montreux.

2012-2013. Renovation of the Les Avants-Sonloup funicular, which keeps its rolling stock from the 1910s.

Historic sites in Les Avants

Les Avants chapel. Built by the Dufour family for the hotel guests, it has served the Protestant, evangelical, German-speaking and Anglican communities. It retains a wooden pulpit from 1893, a stained glass window by Margaret Chilton (1943) and a Gothic-style communion table (1954).

Les Avants-Sonloup funicular. Inaugurated on 9 December 1910, it links Les Avants station to the Col de Sonloup and still runs with its original rolling stock, renovated in 2012-2013.

Les Avants station (MOB). Reached by the Montreux-Oberland Bernois in 1901, it opened the resort to winter tourism, before the Jaman tunnel was bored in 1905.

Narcissus meadows. The heights of the Riviera, from Mont-Pèlerin to Les Avants, are known for their wild narcissi; the writer Eugène Rambert wrote that « on les voit blanchir à plusieurs lieues à la ronde, comme une neige de printemps » (they can be seen whitening for several leagues around, like a spring snow). A narcissus nature trail starts from the village.

Sources

• Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Châtelard, Le (VD) »
• Wikipédia (FR), « Les Avants »
• Wikipedia (EN), « Les Avants »
• Ville de Montreux, « Les Avants »
• Archives de Montreux, « Sous la loupe 01 : le ski aux Prévondes »
• État de Vaud, inventaire du patrimoine immatériel, « Narcisses »
• MyVaud, « Narcisses » (sentier des narcisses)
• Statistique Vaud, « Population résidante permanente au 31 décembre 2025 »
• geo.admin.ch, recherche de lieux swisstopo (coordonnées)

Other villages near Les Avants

• Villard-sur-Chamby (VD)
• Chamby (VD)
• Caux (VD)
• Glion (VD)
• Chernex (VD)