You do not drive to Zermatt. You ride up by train, deep into a valley that keeps narrowing, and step onto a platform from which at first you see nothing. Then, around a street corner, the pyramid of the Matterhorn appears, alone, as if set upon the roofs.
IA village without engines
Petrol cars do not enter Zermatt. People get around on foot, in small electric taxis or by sleigh. That silence changes everything: you hear the snow creak, the bells, the Vispa torrent running through the village.
In the old Hinterdorf quarter, larch granaries blackened by the sun stand on flat stones set on pillars. They kept mice from climbing up to the stores. These houses are several centuries old and tell of mountain life long before tourism.
IIThe mountain of mountains
The Matterhorn rises to 4,478 metres. Its first ascent, on 14 July 1865, by Edward Whymper's party, entered history as much for its success as for the tragedy of the descent, in which four climbers lost their lives. The small mountaineers' cemetery at the heart of the village keeps their memory.
Since 1898, a rack railway has climbed to the Gornergrat, at 3,089 metres. From up there the Matterhorn stands before you, ringed by a crown of four-thousand-metre peaks and glaciers.
IIIChristmas evening
In December the square lights up. The wooden façades are hung with garlands, skaters circle on the ice, and the Matterhorn turns silver under the moon. That is the hour we wanted to set on silk, with its lanterns and its oranges.
For Nox Alpina we climbed higher still, above the chalets, where the night is so clear that the Great Bear seems traced in gold thread.
Next journalGeneva, the city by the water