Title translation - Mark a man of the mountain. A very accurate description of our time in Chamonix.
From Venice we had numerous options for making our way to Paris. After much deliberation, we decided to head to the Alpes for a few days of hiking before catching the Tour de France. Chamonix was our desired location and we are so glad we went there.
First, a disclaimer for any of the pictures we post from this portion of our trip. They can not possibly do justice to the beauty of Mont Blanc and the surrounding area.
One of the wonderful things about traveling around Europe is the ease of travel from country to country. For about $50 each, we traveled from Venice to Chamonix...all the way across northern Italy and across the border. It was a very beautiful and relaxing train ride, and the closer we got to the Alpes, the more spectacular the views.
We had to take a bus across the border and went through the Mont Banc tunnel which is carved right through the mountain and is at least 10 km long. Once we arrived in Chamonix, we were once again pleased with our choice of destination, and walked around constantly looking up at the snow capped mountains that surround this charming ski resort town dotted with Swiss chalets.
The next day we awoke early, eager to do some hiking after being relatively lazy beach bums for so long. We took a telepherique, or cable car, up to the Augille du Midi Summit. The ride alone was quite a thrill. At least 75 people were crammed into the car and each time it went over one of the tension poles, the car started swinging. It was a bit like being on a roller coaster, as the ooohs and ahhs of all the passengers confirmed. It didn't do much to make Mark more comfortable with heights, and we tried not to think about the fact that we were in a car held up by a seemingly thin cable doing an almost vertical climb up to 12,600 feet.
Once we got to the top we were again oohing and aahing. We had never been at that altitude before without being in a plane. It was an amazingly clear day and we could see for miles. We could also see the serious alpinists heading out to try to summit Mont Blanc, 8 km and 1000 meters away. We could see them all like tiny dots in the show with there heavy packs, ice axes and crampons. I have to admit that a tiny part of me wanted to follow them, but my obvious lack of training and equipment kept me content with our planned hike at 7,000 feet. So we took the precarious cable car back to the mid-point of the mountain and began our 3 hour hike, first stopping to eat the picnic lunch we packed.
We both took French in high school and can remember enough to get by. Hiking along, we were able to easily converse with all the French hikers as the conversations were limited to "bon jour", but it still made us feel very fluent!
Our beautiful hike took us to La Mer de Glace, or the sea of glass, the longest glacier in the french Alps. It's 40 km long from top to bottom and is home to the Gotte, or cave that is carved into the glacier every year. The work on the cave begins in February and it takes 3 months to complete. It was a very strange and thrilling feeling to walk through a glacier, knowing that as we walked it was moving at the pace of 1 centimeter per minute. While not visible to the naked eye, the movement is documented by the location of the cave from the previous year, about 20 feet or so down the mountain.
We did more hiking the next day on the mountain opposite Mont Blanc. We chose this location for the views of Mont Blanc, but it was a hazy, cloudy day, so we were a bit disappointed by the lack of visibility, but it was still very beautiful.
The next day we departed for Grenoble, our base of operations to see a couple of the mountain stages of the Tour. We had been tracking the progress and knew Lance was once again in the lead, so we were eager to see for ourselves. This is where I will stop and Mark will pick up to tell you all about the history we witnessed!
Love to all,
Amy
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