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Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or more commonly Chamonix is a French mountain commune located in the Haute-Savoie department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. The commune of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc covers from north to south sixteen villages or hamlets: le Tour, Montroc, le Planet, Argentière, les Chosalets, la Joux, le Lavancher, les Tines, les Bois, les Praz de Chamonix, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, les Pècles, les Mouilles, les Barrats, les Pélerins, les Gaillands, les Bossons.

Chamonix made history in 1091, when Count Aymon I of Geneva made an endowment of the valley to the abbey of Saint-Michel-de-la-Cluse, in Piedmont. Monks settled on the right bank of the Arve. This was the birth of the priory of Chamonix. The commune is a territory of the Duchy of Savoy, which is part of the States of Savoy, themselves later integrated into the Kingdom of Sardinia. Then under the French Revolution and the First Empire, it became a French territory. On 24 March 1860, by the Treaty of Turin, the Duchy of Savoy was ceded to France. On 4 April 1860, the commune of Chamonix became definitively French. It took the name of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc on 21 November 1921: the extension Mont-Blanc was the result of an agreement with the commune of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains.

Sandwiched between the Aiguilles Rouges and Mont Blanc mountain ranges, Chamonix shares with Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and Saint-Véran (Hautes-Alpes) the record of being the municipality with the highest altitude in France and Western Europe (this point is the subject of a cross-border discussion with Italy. It has not yet been settled in terms of international law). It owes this to the presence on its territory of the highest peak in the Alps: Mont Blanc, which rises to 4,810 metres. The municipality is very popular with mountaineers and mountain sports enthusiasts in general. The tourist attraction of Mont Blanc gives the town a very cosmopolitan face.