The temperature was 3°
when I woke to a clear blue sky. Walking down to reception to collect the
breakfast items ordered last night the view was breathtaking with snow covered
mountains on both sides of the valley shimmering in the early morning sun.
For breakfast I had
cereal followed by a croissant with marmalade while Jane ate a pain au
chocolat. It’s difficult to beat items fresh from the bakery in France.
The weather forecast was
for rain later in the day and fine weather over the weekend. We decided to have
a cruisey day after driving nearly 1,000 km in the last two days. Jane went off
to visit a communal room in the camping ground where there is free wi-fi while
I stayed in Mabel catching up on this blog.
When Jane returned I had
to admit that the pitch I insisted on parking on wasn’t the best and we shifted
Mabel over the road to the pitch opposite.
Mid-morning we set off in
Smarty to explore Chamonix and decide what we would do over the next few days.
First stop was to check out La Flégère, a cable car in nearby Les Pras De
Chamonix that rises to 1894 metres from where there are views across the valley
to Mont Blanc. We found we wouldn’t be doing La Flégère – it was closed until 14 June. That was
disappointing for us, but we were not as disappointed as an Australian couple
who having missed the bus from Chamonix had walked the 3 km to ride the cable
car.
Nearby La Flégère was an
immaculate golf course complete with fountains. While the sun was shining, it
was cold and we were surprised to see golfers in shorts and polo shirts.
Clearly a hardy bunch.
We drove into Chamonix
via a back road, parked Smarty and walked around the town. It’s a very
attractive place with lots of (expensive) shops and numerous pavement brasseries. We
visited the tourist information centre and picked up details of walks in the
area and also found the l’ Aguille du Midi cable car was running and that
climbed to 3842 metres terminating close to Mont Blanc and the Italian border.
Also, the Train du Montenvers was running, that is a rack and pinion railway that ascends
to the Mer de Glace glacier
above the town.
 |
| Chamonix |
 |
| Chamonix |
 |
| Chamonix (glacier to left of lamp post) |
 |
| Mural |
 |
| Deck Chairs Outside Tourist Information Office |
 |
| Dr Michel Gabriel - The First Person To Climb Mont Blanc, August 1786 (In His Best Suit Apparently) |
 |
| Two Mountaineers |
We continued to explore
the town. Jane was drawn into most of the shops, I was happy to take in the
sights and take photographs. As we had seen in Switzerland there were numerous
paragliders slowly descending from the mountains high above the town.
Presumably some had taken the cable car up while others would have used the
many helicopters buzzing around the valley. It seemed it would take at least
half an hour to get down to the valley floor. Jane spotted an Icebreaker shop
and emerged with an expensive pair of tramping socks. I didn’t quite understand why we had to come
all the way to France to buy New Zealand socks, but it turned out they had been
made in the USA!
It was lunchtime and we
stopped at The Taverne Chamouny. Jane opted for Croque Monsieur while I had Onion
soup. Both were very good but we found from our bill that a bottle of water
cost nearly €8! We made a note that we must learn the French for tap water. (It’s l'eau du robinet) and.
 |
| Our Lunch Stop |
Next stop was a
supermarket to stock up on supplies including two bottles of wine that cost the
same as our lunchtime bottle of water. On our way back to Mabel we checked out
the railway station for the Train du Montenvers having decided that’s what we
would do first tomorrow.
Back at the camping
ground we debated whether to go for a walk, but rain clouds were building so we
decided against it. Instead, Jane continued with her planning while I got on
with getting the blog up to date.
By evening it still
hadn’t rained. Jane made good use of food nearing it’s use by date by cooking
up a medley of new potatoes, bacon and baked beans. It sounds odd, but it
was delicious. As we ate a few drops of rain landed on the skylight over our
living area but stopped almost as soon as it began. It seems weather forecasts
are not reliable in this part of the world either!
No comments:
Post a Comment