Day 75: Sunday 1 June - Mountains, A Lake And A Gorge, by Ken

As usual in Chamonix we were woken by the loud and mixed dawn chorus. The early start suited us well as we had a busy day ahead.

We were on the road in Smarty shortly after 08:00 heading for the base station in Chamonix of the Téléférigue de l’Aiguille du Mer Midi which is one of the longest cable-car ascents in the world. Our guide book advised getting there early to beat the crowds and also because the mountains tend to be shrouded in cloud by midday. We parked and joined a short queue waiting for the 08:30 departure. The early start was good advice as the queue built steadily in the 10 minutes we were waiting. Every aspect of Chamonix was represented in the queue – tourists, mountaineers, skiers and parapentes. One of the latter, an Englishman, was taking a man for a dual flight and was talking reassuringly to his co-flier and partner.

The cable car was packed when it departed reminding me of a London tube in the rush hour. Jane and I got a good position at an open window at the rear of the car enabling us to watch Chamonix and the valley shrinking as we climbed quickly and smoothly. We travelled a long distance on the sagging cable before we reached the first support tower which we rattled over and the car lurched backwards and swung a bit before settling down. That repeated twice before we reached the intermediate station at Plan du Midi. There we changed to another cable car that took us another 2.9km on a cable without any intermediate supports to the Aiguille du Midi. The English parapente and his passenger came with us. During the later stages of the trip the cable car climbed almost vertically metres away from the granite pinnacle of the Aguille du Midi. The two trips had taken us 3,000 metres above the valley floor. We left the cable car and crossed a short bridge, we both felt light headed and breathless, it could have been the views, but more likely it was the rapid change in altitude.

Beginning The Climb From Chamonix

Much Higher

View From Plan du Midi - The 2nd cable car took us up to the pinnacle on the top

Cable Car To The Top

We visited a photographic and video exhibition of extreme mountaineering that gave me vertigo just looking at them. Solo climbers on sheer rock faces, mountaineers, para skiers hopping over chasms between snow covered slopes and, unbelievably, tightrope walkers on ropes strung between two pinnacles over a drop of hundreds of metres. They did have a safety line, but even so!

Why Would You Want To Do That?

We took a lift to a viewing platform perched on top of the pinnacle. We were now at 3,842 metres. I assume it’s not possible to be any higher than that in Europe and still be in contact with terra-firma unless you are a mountaineer, that is? The views were absolutely incredible and the sky was cloudless. To the south we looked across a series of peaks into Italy – there is actually a cable car there from l’Aguille, but it wasn’t in operation during our visit. To the north lay the Chamonix valley with it’s buildings appearing to be no more than tiny coloured dots. And, most imposing of all to the south west was the snow capped dome of Mont. Blanc a thousand metres above us. There was so much to see and we couldn’t help but spend more than an hour breathing it all in. And it wasn’t just the scenery, there was so much human activity to absorb – skiers on the Col du Midi below us, roped together mountaineers trudging laboriously in all directions and, parapentes who walked precariously along an icy ridge to their take off point about 500 metres away on the col, unpacked their chutes and then launched themselves off the mountain. The updraft from the valley was such they climbed after take off. I guess you could stay up all day if you wanted to? We wondered whether the Englishman and his passenger were amongst them, that would certainly be a trip of a lifetime.

Chamonix In The valley Far Below

The Dome of Mont Blanc

Jane With Mont Blanc Behind

The Two of Us

Parapente Takes Off

And Climbs Over Ridge

Looking South Towards Italy

Mountaineers Ascending A Pinnacle

More and more tourists arrived as we were there, English, German, American, a few Chinese and the inevitable Japanese contingent. I spotted one young Japanese man walking quickly around the viewing platform carrying a stick attached to the top of which was a miniature camcorder. I first saw him holding the stick such that the camera was above the head level of the crowd and pointed towards the mountains, a few minutes later he was back with the camera at waist level and then he was gone. It reminded me of a joke told by a Berber under the stars in the Sahara desert on our last trip. Dropping a Japanese tourist at the airport, the Moroccan asked how the tourist had enjoyed Morocco to which the reply was “I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to look at my photographs yet”.

Japanese Tourist Taking In The View

We took the lift back down and walked through a tunnel carved in the rock to the start of the track the mountaineers, skiers, etc. were taking along a ridge to head off into the mountains. Signs warned there are no marked ski runs, no patrols and you are responsible for your own safety. There were numerous young, and some not so young, adventurers getting ready to set out, fitting their crampons, putting on helmets and roping up with ice axes at the ready. The path was very narrow, possibly 300 mm, and followed the ridge line with the snow dropping away steeply on both sides. We watched a number depart, they clearly knew what they were doing. A sole parapente with his large pack also left while we were there, his only safety equipment was crampons.

You Have Been Warned - Access To Ridge

Mountaineers On Ridge

Setting Off Along The Ridge

And there were lots more spectacular views

Next we walked out onto another viewing terrace that most of the other tourists ignored to take in the same views from a different angle. We read that it’s possible to see the Matterhorn, but it didn’t feature in any of the numerous photographic displays dotted around. We thought we recognised its pointed shape in the distance to the east and a couple speaking in German had the same opinion.

It was well below freezing and after about two hours outdoors, we were cold. We visited the restaurant and after a warming hot chocolate each we felt a lot better. I noticed there was a foursome from Pakistan nearby, or at least their carrier bag came from there.

What A Hot Chocolate Can Do For You

We had seen enough of the magnificent Alps and clouds were starting to build. We took the cable car down to the intermediate station at Plan du Midi and took a short walk. It was so much warmer being 1,500 metres lower and we sat for a while taking in the far less spectacular view. Our guide book was absolutely right advising penny-pinching by only going as far as the Plan du Midi is a waste of money, go to the top or don’t go at all.

Taking A Break At Plan du Midi

Parapente High Above Chamonix

We arrived back at the base station a good three hours after we left speculating whether the morning would be the highlight of our trip. It was certainly going to be hard to beat.

From Chamonix we drove Smarty a bit more than 100km to the town of Annecy, parked Smarty and set out in search of lunch. Jane was getting ‘hangry’ (a Perrott term, or possibly it’s Harry’s meaning one is angry because they are hungry). We walked through a park full of picknickers towards Lac d’Annecy that was seething with all sorts of boats on a beautiful and warm Sunday afternoon – we had gone from below freezing in the mountains to the low 20s in Annecy. Unexpectedly, there were no eating places by the lake, Jane got hangrier and marched determinedly on, not stopping to take in the very attractive views over the lake. I was frequently left behind as I stopped to take photographs.

Fortunately for all concerned, the lakeside walk brought us to the old town of Annecy where virtually every building seems to be an eating establishment. We stopped at la Galejade after Jane had a cursory look at the menu and decided that’s where we must eat. It wasn’t a bad choice, our pavement table was alongside one of the town’s many canals. We wanted to have fondue before leaving France and it was on the menu. Unfortunately, they are unable to serve fondue outside and inside was full. I settled for lasagna and salad while Jane chose Salade Savoyarde, a mix of salad, egg, bacon and croutons piled high in a large bowl which she announced was delicious. We had a half bottle of white wine with our meal – I recall half bottles years ago in the UK, but I don’t think they exist in New Zealand, a very sensible measure for people like us that are driving.

Annecy has been likened to Venice because of the branches of the Canal du Thiou that run through the 16^th century town. Unlike Venice, the town also has roads and the beds of the canals are lined with concrete into which steel circular covers are set now and again to enable the canal to be drained. We walked through the attractive Old Town with its shops and more cafes than I’ve seen anywhere else. It’s clearly a very popular place and the streets were very busy. From the town we took a lakeside walk and this time Jane was interested, her hunger having been sated.

Annecy Canal

Lots of Stalls in Annecy

Lots of PlacesTo Eat In Annecy

Lake Annecy

Annecy Street Entertainer

From Annecy, I drove 10 km to the Gorges de Fier, a narrow gorge cut by glacial melt waters through the soft (limestone?) (where is Ella when you need her?) rock. A 250 metre long walkway cantilevered off one wall of the gorge was constructed in the late 1860s to enable visitors to view the gorge. (I hope they have inspected it since then). At the pay kiosk I was pleased to be asked if I wanted a guide pamphlet in French, but opted for the English version. I was warned the walkway is 25 metres above the River Fier. It was an interesting walk with the gorge shaded by overhanging trees. The erosion of the rock by the river to form a very narrow channel was quite remarkable. It was difficult to see the river at times as it lay under the walkway. The pamphlet informed the river can rise by 25 metres in a matter of hours as the water is funneled into the gorge. Evidence of this was the trunks of large pine trees firmly wedged in the gorge way above the current river level.

Walkway Entering The Gorges de Fier

Inside The Gorge

All Done By Water

Jane drove us back to Chamonix. Billy Connolly who has taken over navigation duties in the satnav since we arrived on the continent mis-directed us at a roundabout and we found ourselves on an autoroute heading away from Chamonix. It cost us a good 15 minutes getting ourselves back on course. Satnav was advising an eta of past 19:00 in Chamonix and that got significantly later after the autoroute ground to a halt and then slowly crawled for kilometres. The problem was caused by Sunday evening traffic heading for Switzerland being held up by a toll station. Fortunately, little traffic was going to Chamonix and we were able to bypass a lot of the queue.

The exertions of yesterday and today have taken their toll. Getting out of Smarty at the camping ground we found our leg muscles were very tight and poor Jane could hardly walk. Neither of us felt hungry and settled for a bottle of wine and an early night.

Today's Return Trip In Smarty (246km)