Itinerary Planning and Monopoly

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After all the driving of yesterday and the late meal and hence late night , coupled with the fact that we're (well my wife and I at least) are past it and no longer up to the pace, it was a casual day today, with a lay-in and some relaxing.

That said, I got up to go for a run as it was relatively cool first thing. However as soon as the sun got above the mountains (which took a while given how high they are) it started to get very hot, very quickly.

Everywhere was a lot busier that we were expecting, but we should't be surprised as we had heard just before we left that this is peak-time for the French going on holiday and about two thirds of the French actually holiday in France. Well, unlike us they have the weather I suppose. As we found in Marrakech (A Sophisticated Day Relaxing - French Style), the French don't do towels on sunbeds at 6.00am, so the others could chill for a while whilst I had a look round.

There are plenty of walks for us to do, although many appear to be a bit dangerous for us and the kids. There's the cable-car up to the Aiguilles du Midi peak, which apparently is right up at 3,800 meters alongside Mont Blanc, a train up to the glacier, a train to Geneva, other cable cars up for other walks, an activity park, a gorge walk and an adventure trail. We can now plan out the remaining days of our holiday. Let's see if we have covered all of that by the time that we leave.

We also all went for a walk around Chamonix. It's a large and busy place, certainly compared to other such places that we have been to such as Yosemite Valley (Back to The Valley), Banff (The Lake With The Rude Name) and Rauris. It is France's oldest ski resort and is where the first ever Winter Olympics were held in 1924.

When we went back to the apartment, we thought we would all play a board game for a while. We played Monopoly, which took about five hours to finish, with a break in the middle to go out for our evening meal. I think it is the first time that we have actually ever finished a game of Monopoly, without losing the will to live half way though.

There can't be many Travel Blogs that feature long games of Monopoly when there is so much, well, traveling to be done. It was some really good family time though.

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Photos

Mont Blanc
The view of Mont Blanc and other mountains from our balcony

Chamonix
The river and mountains in the town