Chamonix, France

June 3rd and 4th

We arrived in Chamonix in time for lunch and found a hotel called Auberge de Manoir.   We were happy that the proprietor spoke English.   After getting settled in our room, we had lunch and then just walked around town until dinner.   We attempted a little hike, but decided that it wasn't what we had hoped, so turned around.  There was not enough time to do both of the things we wanted to do, the cable car up to Aiguille du Midi and the train to Mer de Glace.   We would do those things tomorrow.

Dinner was at a terrific place called Revola and the food was amazing.  The owner spoke English for which we were very grateful.  It is always a challenge when no one speaks English especially in the smaller towns.

There are two tomatoes missing from this salad.  We keep forgetting to take photos before diving in.  The dressing was a lemon something and really good.

Dan had beef with potatoes.

I had the lamb.  It tasted better than this photo looks.

The view from our hotel room.

Cute little room with a balcony and view of the alps.

 In Chamonix, there are two attractions that are almost mandatory.  The first is the Aguille du Midi cable car ride to the summit which is 3,842 meters.  The Aguille du Midi is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps. The cable car to the summit, the Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi, was built in 1955 and held the title of the world's highest cable car for about two decades. It still holds the record as the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world, from 1,035 m to 3842 m.

 There are two sections: from Chamonix to Plan de l'Aiguille at 2,317 m is the first section of the ride.   At this point, you get out of the cable car and then get into another one that takes you  directly, without any support pillar, to the upper station at 3,777 m.

The tramway travels from Chamonix to the top of the Aiguille du Midi – an altitude gain of over 2,800 m – in 20 minutes.

We reached the halfway point, took some photos, and then got into the tram that would take us to the top.

This is the cable car before it is loaded with people.  We would take this to the top.

View from the window of the cable car

At last we reached the summit.  Now we would take some stairs to an even higher point.  The views were absolutely breathtaking.   And it was a little harder to take a breath at that altitude.

I took about 100 photos.

Dan took a couple as well.

Looking straight down into the town below.  No subtle drop-off here.

People looking from the deck

The absolute summit.  You can take an elevator to this.

We saw some climbers below.  I think they take the ride up and then hike down.  I can't imagine.

Going back down to the cable car after some hot tea in the cafe.

If you look closely, you'll see some workers on the side of the building. 

Dan really loved it.  It wasn't that cold either.  It was sunny and beautiful.

Someone built some snow people by the stairway.

Dan didn't want to leave.

The next cable car was coming.  We would have to decide if we would stay or take this one down.

We decided to go so we would be able to see the next attraction before the expected cloudy skies in the late afternoon.  View from inside the cable car.  It's crowded!!

Really crowded.  Standing room only-about 75 people.

I wasn't next to a window, but behind someone who was, so I could see outside the cable car some on the way down.  I took some blind shots with the camera by holding it above the head of the person in front of me.  I could see two people walking across the snow with backpacks. 

What were they doing?

Oh, para-sailing.   We didn't get to see them take off though.

Heading down-It's a really long drop to the bottom.

We made it back.  Wow! Was that a spectacular experience.

Lunch was at the same cafe as yesterday.  As we were sitting waiting for our food, we looked up and saw the para-sailers who we had seen earlier on the cable car. 

Beautiful sunny day-in the 60s.

After lunch, we set off for the second attraction of the day, the Mer de Glace.  The Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) is a glacier located on the northern slopes of Mont Blanc. At 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long and 200 metres (660 ft) deep, it is the longest glacier in France.  The thing I was most looking forward to seeing were the ice caves. 

We would take a little train.

They allow dogs.  Aww.

The Mer de Glace glacier used to be all the way to the front of the photo and beyond and as high as the color change on the side of the mountain.  As you can see, it has receded dramatically.  

Very sad that the glacier has receded so much. 

There is a little museum that tells you all about glaciers.  Very interesting, but kind of depressing with their recessions and global warming.

The ice caves you can see in the center of the photo.  We wanted to go down and see them, but they were closed for repairs.  We were told they are not safe right now.  Disappointing. 

Still can't believe that it has receded so much.

We got back to Chamonix late afternoon and it was clouding up a bit. 

Dinner was at a little Italian place where we ordered and were out of there in record time-a little less than an hour. 

As I was downloading photos from the day and beginning to write the blog entry, Dan said "Come quickly and look out on the balcony".

The sun was setting and the mountains were pink from the reflection.  The moment was magic.  Truly.

I didn't think any of the pink would show in the photos, but am grateful that it did show some.  WOW!

What a day!