Italian/French Alps

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In the mid semester break (exam week) I was lucky enough to have no exams. Despite the large amount of work and assignments that still had to be done we both decided to bugger it and see some Italian and French Alps for a week.

We flew to Milan, Italy and straight away trained to the north of Italy to the Valle d’Aoste. We arrived at the gorgeous town of Aosta and saw the beautiful winding road leading from the valley to the Mont Blanc tunnel that went through the Alps to France.
We spent our days walking and hiking the mountains of the area, up to heights of over 2000 metres. The temperature was freezing but we still had beautiful daytime weather to see the views from the top of the mountains. There was snow that fell higher up over the evenings when we were relaxing in a lovely guesthouse at the foot of the Italian alps in one of the satellite villages in the Aosta Valley.

After a few days there we went through Mont Blanc and reached France where we stayed in Chamonix for several days. The town was quiet as it was not high season, but it was still a beautiful place to visit with the clear sunny (yet freezing ) days. While here we explored the mountains from the French side and tried some local cuisine such as baguette with cheese, chips, tomato sauce and mayo. We took the cable car up to Aguille du Midi where we were finally able to get to see and walk around in the snow. Despite feeling absolutely frozen the views were amazing and it was very interesting to watch climbers heading out to start a trek through the snowy mountains.

After our visit to Chamonix, we travelled to Geneva Switzerland where we spent the last day visiting a few monuments and walked the city. As we learnt well from our trip in a whole it does not pay to be in a city only for a Sunday as generally nothing is open or happening and you are left wondering what you can possibly do!

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Photos

Aosta Valley
Start of Mont Blanc tunnel

French Alps
Mer de Glace