Le Jardin des Cimes – The Peaks’ Garden – is a sustainable development project located at 1000 metres high in the Mont-Blanc mountains range (North Alps – France- Europe). As named, the Peaks’ Garden is a large garden in the mountains. On a several thousand square metres area, it offers an outdoor visit to different centres of interest in the alpine nature to a large public. Located on the Assy’s Plateau, this project is an example of restructuring and revitalising a depressed region that faced the closing down of special medical institutions that were based on the Plateau for 50 years.
After only three years of activity, this project has been a real success and has been recently awarded the Rhone-Alps’ region Prize for Ecotourism Innovation. It shows clearly that in a wealthy country with several centuries of history and a mature free market economy but already facing poor class integration and challenges to natural environment conservation, a mixed economy can be found in a special joint venture. It combines usual business activities (tourism) and social goals in a sustainable partnership between public and private structures for the long lasting livelihood. Tarifs are 6 Euros € for adults and 4€ for children under 16.