The second place we had earmarked to visit for potential places for future winter stays was Chamonix. I had never been but Tim had about 25 years ago so his memories were a bit rusty.
Chamonix is situated in a valley with Mont Blanc towering above it. Everywhere you looked you have absolutely stunning views of the mountains. After leaving Bourg we thought we would arrive to a relatively sleepy town due to the summer season officially ending but that was not the case in Chamonix. It was crazy busy. So much so that we thought we might struggle to find a spot in a campsite. The first one we visited was not to our liking so we headed a little further out of town and luckily got in early enough that they still had some spots. Somehow we managed to jag a spot with amazing views of one of the many mountains above us.
We went for a bike ride into town and had a little look around and we honestly couldn’t believe how busy it was. Restaurants were full, the pedestrian streets were full, there were even queues for ice-cream. We did find out that there was a famous ultra marathon that had finished the day before so numbers may have been high for that but in one of the shops we went to the guys said that it’s pretty much like this for most of the year. The buzz was infectious.
I was still not feeling great so we didn’t do too much for a day or so other than heading into town and walking around and visiting a few rental agencies to see what it was like to rent places and it wasn’t as bad as Bourg but we were getting similar responses. Very hard to find yearly/seasonal accomodation through the agents etc etc. Though we definitely made a few good connections.
Chamonix is a bit of a funny resort in that there is no ski in and ski out accomodation. You have to catch cable cars up the sides of the valleys and then ski above that. Then you catch the cable cars down at the end of the day to the town. The town itself stretches for quite a long way down the valley so you have to access the cable cars by free shuttle buses that run through the town. This means that there are a number of areas or mini towns you can stay at dotted all along the valley. Our campsite was in Les Pratz which wasn’t big but had the added benefit of having one of the big cable cars stationed in the town. The great thing about the valley is that it is relatively flat so you can easily bike or walk in between hubs.
I was determined to get to see Mount Blanc up close and to do this you simply catch a cable car from the middle of Chamonix centre and then up you went. We obviously had to incorporate a bit of walking with this so on the day I was feeling better we caught a little train up the mountain to a point and decided to hike up to the mid station of the cable car and then catch that to the top. It shouldn’t have been a difficult walk but being 2000m up adds a level of difficulty when climbing up. When we purchased our tickets the lady warned us that if we hadn’t reserved the cable car we might’ve not got a spot and we would have to walk back. But we thought we would chance our luck. It was a beautiful walk and when we got to mid station although it said no more tickets being sold we somehow found ourselves in the cable car heading up.
You get off at the top of Aiguille du Midi and can then walk around the many platforms viewing Mont Blanc. It was fascinating seeing the climbers in the distance descending down from the peak. The whole scenery was truely breathtaking and at 3842m you really appreciate Mother Nature. When we were walking around looking at all the information about the first climbers who ascended Mont Blanc I was amazed that it was in 1786. Crazy mountain explorers! Captain Cook only landed in Australia in 1770.
On another day we managed a little walk up the other side of the valley. The best part was watching all the paragliders taking off the side of the mountain. Absolute bonkers they are! We also finished off the walk looking at a number of rock climbers dotted throughout the rocky crags of the mountain in one section and again spent some time admiring their skill and strength and also craziness!
Chamonix is known as the mountain Mecca for adventure junkies who want to do crazy things but it is also a pretty cool place for those of us a little more risk adverse who also enjoy doing fun things up a mountain, enjoying the scenery and maybe follow that up with a tasty fondue and a glass of wine. All things going well we will be back Chamonix in the future to see what the winter season fuss is all about! S