Chamonix

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What a day!
We started with a climb of 4800m up the face of Mont Blanc in the sunrise. It took 3 gondolas to get to the top, including one of Rick Steves' "Wow!" trips for a phenomenal view. Rugged mountain peaks, a surround of glaciers, 6° weather and a glorious sunrise prior to crowds. We were clearly on top of the world!
As scheduled, we met up with our "pilots" for our paragliding experience...it was everything we had imagined and much more! Eddie and Jerome had already done their first flight of the day and were ready to roll for the second. Both were quite experienced, reassuring and had a great sense of humour!! With an office view like theirs you would wonder what they did to get their adrenaline pumping!!
We started at 2000m above the valley (which is 4888m above sea level) and looked down with butterflies! It was a quick process to get suited up and start running off the side of the mountain...before we knew it we were airborne and loving it. We were promptly tested by the pilots to determine...our cohonas. We passed :D
Mom and her guide headed straight for the clouds, climbing an additional 800m over the peaks...in a very uncommon event they were able to "touch the roof" meaning they actually flew into a cloud! This does not happen often as the parachutes cannot fly in the clouds...it was extra special to be able to do something that excited the pilot, given they jump 7 times a day.
In great haste my pilot chased Mom and Eddie, alas, the cloud was too quick for us...all we got was a phenomenal view 😉 We learned later that most flights don't go up to or over the peak...I guess we're extra special!!
We crossed the valley and headed over the glaciers of Mont Blanc...some amazing photo opportunities later Jerome asked, "would you like to try a 360°?" to which I obviously replied ABSOLUTELY!!! o.m.g. So apparently a 360° means spiralling towards the ground at insane speeds...when I looked "up" I found we were about horizontal with our parachute!! So the first go was 3 rotations...after which I promptly said AGAIN!!!!! We did it twice more at 4 rotations before he decided I was worthy to take the reins. Oh yes, I steered that bad boy!!!
Afterwards Jerome and I cheered Mom on as she tried her own hand at "360°'s"...she didn't hear our cheering...I guess she was distracted...can't imagine why!!! Jerome and Eddie took some amazing pictures and videos along the way (it was almost as if they had done this before) that we are trying to upload to this site...if you don't see us on the news for our awesomeness first, check in on this site every now and then until we figure it out!!

So we rode all (but one...which we're sure couldn't have been nearly as awesome as the ones we were on) the gondolas; hiked from a gondola down to Lac du Brevent (which we discovered as we flew over the ridge); we jumped off a mountain; and even shopped for delicious french parfume and hiking poles (we found out we're not nearly the mountain goats we thought we were...things are looking up for Italy and Switzerland). All before 4:30pm, at which point we surrendered ourselves to crepes (avec rum and contreau) and local beer...hell of an ending to a hell of a day!!!!!

To bed early for an early rise to drop off our car in Paris and then it's off to Italy to see what kinds of trouble we can get up to there!!!

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Photos

Mom and Eddie
taken by Jerome

Lana and Jerome
taken by Eddie

Comments

[Patrick]

Wow...
Lana, I would have to be completely drunk, and on some sort of mind altering drug to be able to do that. Kudos to you both! Love Paddy