France: Cold Chamonix

Memo to self: Autocar is a bus - not a different kind of train. So silly. We discovered this after purchasing our tickets that our 'train' didn't have a platform number - how strange. All the departure board would say is Autocar, it got us thinking... hmmmm off to the information desk and with a little pigeon english and sign language later we discovered our 'train' was leaving the bus terminal out the other side of Lyon Parte Dieu. We made it with only five minutes to spare - just enough time for bonbons for the four hour journey.

Four hours and a few minutes later and we arrive in cold Chaminox at 10.30pm ish. Luckily we had booked a hotel the night before! It was quite refreshing to have a nice cool breeze for a change from our three month summer sweat (not that we are complaining by any means). We roamed the cute streets of Chamonix in search of our hotel and any eatery that was open at 11pm. We were in luck! A little burger joint was the spot and the chip & beef burgers definitely hit the spot too.

In the morning we were delighted to discover we were surrounded by snowy mountains, even a Mount Blanc. After a naughty french breakfast and a stop off at the tourist office we realised our little walk to Lac Blanc was turning out to be a five hour tramp. With a lot of kiwi can do attitude and Toms' balls of steal plus a few girl guide supplies later we walked to the beginning of the track, passing the cable car La Flégére which wasn't open on the day we came to town. humpf.

With the adrenalin still pumping from the mad dash to get everything and finding the track we didn't really think about the madness in it all. We started the track in hired boots and singlets and after a few hours climbing up we arrived at the top of the cable car station. The temperature quickly dropped so we pushed on, hoping to find the Refuge hut before 5pm. The track was well marked and had amazing views all the way up. We finally made it to the hut with the sun just going down that was close!

We were then delighted with warm drinks, wine and a three course dinner all provided by our hosts. Many of the trampers were French however we were seated with four English who entertained us with stories of climbing Mount Blanc in the dark and places they had seen.

After a cold night (I don't think there was a heater in the dorm room) and not a lot of sleep (damn snorers) we started our day with a hot chocolate and bread and were on our way back down the mountain with the hope that the cable car was running today because of some crazy 50km mountain running race on. We were in luck - so about an hour and half later we were back on the road leading into Chamonix by foot.

The weather was on the cloudy side but we thought if we didn't do the Aiguille de Midi now we might never do it (well I think that was me really - a little scared of heights when it comes to 3,842m). After being crammed into the cable car, and having a very smooth but scary elevation up to the top station which seemed to be built into the rock formations we looked down and had major vertigo visions. I stuck to the middle of every platform and encouraged Tom to do the same. Little did he listen. The views were amazing and it was minus five degrees at the top so after a hot chocolate we made the twenty minute journey down with the same oooooo's and ahhhhhhhhh's.

After hopping onto the train (this time a real train) we must have been pretty tired as we both did the train head bob off to sleep. We definitely will be back to the little town in the mountains but definitely in winter time to see what the french alps have to offer for us ski bunnies.

G