Blogs from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe - page 2

Chamonix - I had heard so much about it and just had to see for myself what people were saying. After an early morning start and catching the train to St Gervais and then onto Chamonix, it was close to 2 hours, but 2 hours very much worth it. Oh my goodness, just hopping of the train, the scenery was breathtaking, and of course it being the start of winter you can only imagine the cold in the air. The snow as we were travelling the train was getting thicker as we went up. Once arriving, I had to mark my one giant leap for Jacqui. I captured my foot step on the snow lol. I then wandered down the main street, although normally you are looking ahead and to the sides as you are walking. ... read more

Writing from the fourth country of the trip (England, Ireland, Switzerland, now France). I'm actually just across the Swiss border in a mountain town called Chamonix; I didn't have to show my passport to get here and everyone speaks French just like in Switzerland so it really doesn't feel too different. Up in the mountains, you can see into three countries (the aforementioned plus Italy). While it's in the mid-50s down in the valley, it's in the teens and twenties on the eternally snowcapped mountaintops. I got rained on again walking to my hostel from the train depot in Chamonix (helped rinse some of the mud out of my jeans, ha) and it's raining lightly tonight but it was sunny during the day for gorgeous views of the mountains. It's still early for summer season up ... read more

De rat race ontsnappen? De laatste week van oktober spendeerden we in de Franse Alpen, een verslag op www.patagoniandreams.com for english version of this entry with more pics, please visit www.patagoniandreams.com... read more

Having seen what the queues were like on previous days and being very keen to get the most out of those €234 tickets, we decided to make it an early start for our trip up to the Aiguille du Midi. We got to the cable-car at 6.45am, which was about 15 minutes after it opened. It was starting to get quite busy, but nothing like we had seen it previously. Almost everyone was carrying rope and ice-axes, so it was true what we had heard that the first people up there in the morning are the climbers, rather than the tourists like us who were just going up for the views. We did standout some what. We'd had the foresight to put on some warm clothes and some decent shoes, but clearly we were not professional ... read more

Bad weather or not, we decided that today we were going to go up the mountains and go for walk. We decided on a walk from Plan Praz, which is 2,000 meters up and a gondola ride from Chamonix, to La Flégère, which is 1,894 meters up and a cable-car ride back down to Les Praz. After the now daily croissant-run, we walked to the gondola station. Given that we also wanted to go to the Aiguille de Midi and the Montenvers Glacier on another day, we got two day passes, not on consecutive days. That set us back €234, so it was another one of those traumatic moments, but it had to be done. This is what we'd come all this way for after all. Once we got the tickets we discovered that they give ... read more