July 21 – 24, 2022
Chamonix, France
Those French are something else indeed. On day two of the Chamonix bartender asking me if I wanted ice in my rosé, and me looking at him like he’s an alien, I finally asked him if people really do that. Put ice in their rosé. He said yes, the French term for it translates to wine swimming or swimming pool or something. I thought certainly he was gonna tell me some believable nonsense about foreign tourists doing unspeakable things to the wine by putting ice in it, but alas, no, the French are the weird ones. Keep in mind, it’s relatively hard to find ice for drinks in France/Italy/Switzerland, so adding it to wine seems double weird if you ask me. Normalment.
Once Nathan, Pat, and Andrew arrived at our hotel in Chamonix after walking to Les Houches to close the loop, they all got settled and cleaned up and we headed out for dinner at Atmosphere. It was nice, right on the main drag, and my mussels in blue cheese sauce and frites were quite tasty.
After dinner, Nathan and I got ice cream cones, and the four of us walked to find the Aiguille du Midi cable car station and scope out where we could get breakfast on the way there in the morning.
Chores done, and with dessert in our bellies, we walked back to the hotel and said good night. We have an 8:25 am date with the cable car, and we don’t want to be late.
We wanted to do a couple of different touristy activities for this final leg of our TMB adventure. The first being the Aiguille du Midi – a cable car to the top of the mountain (aiguille = needle) Aiguille du Midi with fantastical views of Mont Blanc and the Vallee Blanche. It’s actually two cable cars and an elevator ride to the top for views out to Mont Blanc.
The four of us rode up to the top all together, and when at the top most viewing platform, Andrew, who is Malta’s premier climbing guide & ambassador for all things climbing in Malta, pointed out the climbing routes down below and explained it all to us.
We also waited in line to get our photos taken in the somewhat cheesy ‘Step into the Void’ glass box. This glass box photo op is pretty popular, hence the line, and staff are there to enforce the rules (no bags, wear slippers). Staff also take your phone and take all of the photos, in a friendly wham, bam, thank you ma’am, sort of way, so I didn’t really feel I could turn around to look out and experience what was out there.
Nathan and I also wanted to take a different cable car, what we would call a gondola, from the French side, across the glaciers, to the Italian side, Punte Helbronner. Pat and Andrew said to go on without them, and we’d meet up again for dinner.
This ride is 5 km, across the Géant glacier, and most notably spans about 3 miles without any support.
It took about 30 minutes or so to float over to Italy, and when we arrived there were low clouds to greet us and it was quite a bit chillier than the French side had been. We did our bit of sightseeing from the terraces on the Italian side, checked out the gift shop, basically checked the box, and waited in line to go back to France.
Once back on the French side, we ate our bakery-prepared ham and cheese sandwich, and toured a little alpinism museum. The museum was mainly focused on white dudes, climbing rocks and becoming famous climbers. Very little was mentioned about the (also white) women who have done remarkable mountain climby things. Normalment. One thing worth mentioning, August 8, 1786 is considered the birth of alpinism, and for those of you keeping track, is also my birthday some nearly 200 years later. Ta da!
After lunch and the museum, we were losing steam and decided to start the cable car journey back to Chamonix.
Once down on solid ground, we walked back to our room to rest and recharge. Mid snooze, the cute little housekeeper knocked on the door to clean the room. Of course. I shooed her away, and she had me put the do not disturb on the door. Awake now, we went down to the outdoor ‘rosé with ice’ bar and had happy hour.
That evening, we reconnected with Pat & Andrew and had our final dinner together. We ate outdoors at Mumma, an Asian fusion place that had been recommended to us by several people.
We enjoyed delicious food and wonderful conversation as we rehashed the great time we had over the previous two weeks, and said goodbye.
The next morning, Pat & Andrew flew home, and we continued our sightseeing of the area. Next up, the train to Mer de Glace.
We had breakfast at the same little bakery everyday in Chamonix, mainly because it was the only place to have the good sense to open at 7, and today was no different. I know I rag on the French ad nauseam, but seriously, you have a touristy area where tourists want to get up early and start their day, and only one place is open for an early breakfast. I mean, they were ridiculously busy every day, so maybe this place has something figured out. Just saying.
After breakfast, we hustled to catch the cute little red train to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace. The early morning trains are filled with ice climbers, and less so with tourists. The little cogwheel train chugged up the mountainside for 20 minutes before depositing us at the top of the Mer de Glace terrace.
We took pictures from the terrace of the Grand Drus and nearby mountains while we waited for the gondola down to open at 9 am.
When the gondola down to Mer de Glace opened at 9, we were in line, so we caught one of the first gondolas. Once off the gondola, there are still 520 steps down to the glacier, as climate change is shrinking the glacier to the tune of needing to add 40 steps to this adventure every year!
We slowly made our way down to the mouth of the ice cave, taking photos of all of the placards indicating where the glacier was over the past 30 some years.
The cave itself is not very long or big. There are a few sculptures carved into the ice; a bear, a picnic table, chairs, and the like for photo ops. There are also a few interpretive signs on the walls that explain all things related to the glacier and ice.
After our walk through the cave, it was time to huff it back up those 520 steps to the gondola and explore the rest of the site at the top.
There is a hotel at the top, perfect for a mid-morning coffee, and also another little museum all about ice and glaciers that we walked through.
The train down was calm and uneventful, and we were back in Chamonix by noon.
The next thing on our agenda was to walk back to Les Houches, so I could close the loop. The path from Chamonix to Les Houches is pretty shaded and uneventful, and while it should be downhill, I think, it undulates and has some bigish ups and downs. Nothing compared to what we did, but certainly not level on a hot afternoon.
We got into Les Houches, took our celebratory photos, and did a little souvenir buying. We managed to come away with two t-shirts each to commemorate the trip, in addition to the TMB shirts Pat and Andrew gave us.
After that, we stopped to get a bite to eat at a little restaurant in Les Houches. I had heard good things on multiple occasions about the place, so I wanted to try their burger. The service was slower than even Europe slow, and when I ordered my burger I noticed that the menu said all burgers come out rare unless you specify. Gross. I specified medium. We waited. Second cider and waited. The food came out, and this cow still had a heartbeat! Look, I didn’t order tartare. This is supposed to be a hamburger, heartbeat not included. I did the best I could, ate the outside edges, and thought about Damian, who would have been over the moon for this living beef-on-bun catastrophe.
After our late lunch, we caught the bus back to Chamonix, and I hoped E. Coli would not be the icing on the cake to this epic European adventure. We fly home tomorrow. Preferably without vomit or diarrhea on the flight. It’s a long way to Longmont from Chamonix.
We capped off our night with a trip to the grocery store to buy airplane snacks, and had a quiet dinner in this bustling town, before packing to head home.
