A watercolour showing a view of The Alps from the Col du Chat. A valley is shown in the foreground, with the mountains shown behind. Inscribed lower left: Col du Chat Ap: 19 /87.

Queen Victoria stayed at the Maison Mottet, part of the Hotel de l'Europe in Aix-les-Bains from the 6 to 28 April 1887. On 19 April 1887, the Queen went on a carriage ride through Bourget, travelling along the Col du Chat. In her journal entry of that day, Queen Victoria describes how "Nothing could exceed the beautiful of the scenery [from the Col du Chat], the deep blue sky, without a cloud, the dark blue lake, & the glorious line of spotless creamy coloured Alps rising behind the other hills, with the softest blue shades, marking their serrated, ragged rocks".