Jane and Hal's Trip to France
Summer 2005
Chamonix - Mont Blanc
We then headed for the Mont Blanc tunnel which is just a few minutes out of town. There was a 20+ minute wait to get into the tunnel
The trip through its 11+km is easy - as the tunnel is well maintained. We arrived in Chamonix and went hunting for our Hotel Mercure. We found it and registered. The had wi-fi but you needed to purchase a card with a password and username that would work overnight. We did, but the username/password they gave us didn't work. The desk clerk was on hold for Orange for about 30 minutes when we gave up. There web site said we could login with a credit card. Of course they email you the username password! Idiots. So that was a non-starter.

 

As you can see from the photo below there were some dancers performing in front of the SNCF (RR) station. Paul Taylor has nothing to worry about. Even Donna Uchizono is safe from this competition. Ugh - were they terrible.
Chamonix is a real tourist town with lots of restaurants, souvenir shops and gift shops. We bought very little. It was easy.
We then took a nap. Around 9:30 we headed out for dinner. We found a lovely cafe, Monchu, and had the meat fondue with a baked potato, thin sliced steak to put on a brazzier and many interesting sauces. We split a mousse au chocolate for dessert and each had a glass of beire with dinner. A litre bottle of Badoit as well of course.
Sunday - August 7 - We had a big breakfast in the hotel fit for mountain climbers. Since the weather was overcast we headed for the cog railway to the Montevers Mer de Glace. The cog railway goes up to the glacier at very steep angles - maybe as much as 15 degrees. When we got there we took the cable car down to the glacier. When we got to the bottom we decided to skip the descent via steep stairs to the ice caves. The glacier is just huge and covered with dirt over much of it. There are giant crags and formations.
We then returned to the town and had lunch at a creperie on the main square. We both had wonderful crepes. We then purchased Hal a fleece for the hopeful climb the next day to the Aguille du Midi. We had our usual nap and then went out for a pleasant dinner at a local bistro. We had a great salad followed by fondue and vanilla sundae.

Monday - August 8 - We had another mountain climbers breakfast at the hotel and then took the local free shuttle bus to the cable cars to Aguille du Midi. When we got there the lines for tickets were huge. Fortunately we had purchased a 36 hour ticket the day before and so avoided the enormous line. We only had to get the reservation card. Ours was for cabin 48 which was to leave in 1/2 an hour around noon.

A note about Mont Blanc. You can not reach Mont Blanc via cable car or tram. It can only be reached by mountain climbing. Something we were certainly not about to do, although we saw many others preparing to do it, with all the appropriate mountain climbing gear. Mont Blanc is over 4800 meters high. The closest us mortals can get to it is to the top of Aquille du Midi, which is right next to it and rises to a height of over 3800 meters.

We got on the cable car at the appointed time. It was like a sardine can. They literally pushed you in. Reminded us of what we have heard of the Japanese subway system. The trip to the Plan de Aguille, about half way up was exciting and took about 10 minutes.

We then switched to another cable car for the final ascent to the summit of Aguille du Midi at 3842 meters. It is just below Mont Blanc and is possibly the highest point that one can get to in France. The views are just spectacular.
We had a hot chocolate and sun bathed at the top. As well as took the many photos you see here.

The descent was great. When you go over the stantions in the middle of the journey it feels like you are on a roller coaster. Check out the video and you can hear the reactions.

We finally arrived at the bottom. Took the shuttle bus back to the hotel and rested for a bit. We then went out and had some lunch. The same bistro we had dinner the night before. Jane had onion soup and Hal had pizza. We then shopped for a few trinkets. Bought a lovely sweater for Ann Lipton's new baby and a salt dish for Mark and Anna. Not much in the way of gifts. We really didn't see anything worth schlepping back to NY.

Went back for a nap and then went out for dinner around 9pm. We went to still another bistro where Jane finally had her Steak Frites!!!! Hal just had some veal Milanese. We split an order of tomato and mozzarella. Hal had a After Eight ice cream (chocolate mint chip with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Ummm good.