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If you look hard - right at the top is a building! This is where we went!Easter Sunday:
Breakfast the next morning was Ok- accompanied with a chocolate rabbit! The day looked promising and we headed off to Chamonix- back in France. It is the infamous and deluxe ski resort in France. Surrounded by the snowy alps it sits in a beautiful basin with Mt Blanc rising above the rest.
The scenery on the way there was “jaw droppingly” beautiful – very hard to describe but absolutely amazing – I really don’t have enough adjectives to describe the area or the atmosphere.
We were all amazed and the girls loved to spot all the natural waterfalls we passed on the way. Chamonix is only 1 hour from Geneve and it was the most outstanding scenery all the way. We passed through tunnels in the mountains to get there – it is called Mt Blanc tunnel but I am not sure we actually went under Mt Blanc!
Chamonix is where world class skiers, boarders and climbers push themselves to extremes on Europe’s most challenging, adrenaline pumping pistes and rock faces. This is the stuff of James Bond movies – stunt riddles ski chases were all filmed here!
The first winter Olympics – 1924 were also held here.
The highlight for us and the main event was to ascend up the Aiguille du Midi – Europe’s highest and scariest cable car. Certainly not for those who are afraid of heights or for those with faint hearts!
A jagged pinnacle of rock rising above glaciers, snowfields and rocky crags. It is only 8 km’s from the domed Mt Blanc summit. Somehow it seemed much closer!
The idea of a floor to peak cable car was first born in 1909 – but the technical challenges proved too much and they had to settle for a lower altitude version – however in 1955 the original dream was completed.
Climbing from the valley floor to a terrace beneath the Aiguille at 3777m in just 20 minutes is an amazing feat of engineering.
From below the Aiguille looks like a single peak – in fact it is 2 spires connected by a gravity defying footbridge!
The final few metres to 3842m high summit are reached by an elevator! From the top you get 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains and a great view of Mont Blanc. Mt Blanc is 4810m - in case you were wondering.
We were higher than Mt Cook 3754m!
We caught the cable car down the bottom in the middle of Chamonix - €120 later, but well worth it! The cable cars are huge and can hold 72 people maximum. Luckily we only had about 20 in ours. We bought the tickets at 10:30 and along with a few skiers with all the climbing gear we headed off at 11:00. WOW!!! Straight up – we managed to get right to the front of the cable car so we got the full gravity defying effect!
We reached the first transition point and disembarked and headed to the connecting cable car for the next part of the journey. If I thought the last was straight up – this was damn near vertical! The scenery of jagged rocks, crevasses and the odd skier braving this side were impressionable. As we came into dock the cable car was swinging a little and we (being at the end) were not over solid ground until we walked down to the door!
As we came out of the cable car we had choices of direction but we followed the skiers who were all getting roped together and heading out on the ridge. We walked over the footbridge into the other spire. That is right we were in the mountain!
Looking down at the footbridge.
To walk over the footbridge and look down was in particular quite scary! The weather up there would cloud over in seconds and then be brilliant sunshine, however it was at least -9 without the wind and we were all wrapped up with double jackets, snow boots, scarves and gloves. Felt like a “weeblel wobble” but can’t fall down. (Remember those?)
I was so impressed – couldn’t believe I was so high and that we were really there.
One of those very tender and emotional moments.
We took the elevator to the summit – it counted up the altitude in metres as we watched!
To be 3842m high was incredible and breathtaking – literally. The altitude effected us all but in particular Hermione and Nev who both had dizzy spells and could only walk a few paces before being out of breath!
This is definitely in my top 10 things we have done – amazing and unforgettable.
I am sure the photos that I have attached do not do the vista and atmosphere justice – but believe me it was well worth the trip!
Naturally there is a cafeteria and souvenir shop up there and even a post office! We had morning tea (at lunchtime) sitting beside a window with a straight drop down. Awesome!!
We stayed up there for about 2:30 minutes – I couldn’t get enough!
The descent was just as thrilling – again we made sure we got to the front for the full effect.
Halfway down we had a wait for the connecting cable car – so we enjoyed our time at the ‘bar’!
Once we were back on the valley floor we looked around the beautiful Chamonix and then headed for home.
We were going to go back through Switzerland but as we entered at the border we were informed we needed to buy an Autoroute ticket – this is valid for a year but it is 30 CHF (Swiss Francs) about €25 or 60 NZ$. (Luckily we were not caught yesterday without it - however the man at the border yesterday never mentioned it!)
Breakfast the next morning was Ok- accompanied with a chocolate rabbit! The day looked promising and we headed off to Chamonix- back in France. It is the infamous and deluxe ski resort in France. Surrounded by the snowy alps it sits in a beautiful basin with Mt Blanc rising above the rest.
The scenery on the way there was “jaw droppingly” beautiful – very hard to describe but absolutely amazing – I really don’t have enough adjectives to describe the area or the atmosphere.
We were all amazed and the girls loved to spot all the natural waterfalls we passed on the way. Chamonix is only 1 hour from Geneve and it was the most outstanding scenery all the way. We passed through tunnels in the mountains to get there – it is called Mt Blanc tunnel but I am not sure we actually went under Mt Blanc!Chamonix is where world class skiers, boarders and climbers push themselves to extremes on Europe’s most challenging, adrenaline pumping pistes and rock faces. This is the stuff of James Bond movies – stunt riddles ski chases were all filmed here!
The first winter Olympics – 1924 were also held here.
The highlight for us and the main event was to ascend up the Aiguille du Midi – Europe’s highest and scariest cable car. Certainly not for those who are afraid of heights or for those with faint hearts!
A jagged pinnacle of rock rising above glaciers, snowfields and rocky crags. It is only 8 km’s from the domed Mt Blanc summit. Somehow it seemed much closer!
The idea of a floor to peak cable car was first born in 1909 – but the technical challenges proved too much and they had to settle for a lower altitude version – however in 1955 the original dream was completed.
Climbing from the valley floor to a terrace beneath the Aiguille at 3777m in just 20 minutes is an amazing feat of engineering.
From below the Aiguille looks like a single peak – in fact it is 2 spires connected by a gravity defying footbridge!
The final few metres to 3842m high summit are reached by an elevator! From the top you get 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains and a great view of Mont Blanc. Mt Blanc is 4810m - in case you were wondering.
We were higher than Mt Cook 3754m!
We caught the cable car down the bottom in the middle of Chamonix - €120 later, but well worth it! The cable cars are huge and can hold 72 people maximum. Luckily we only had about 20 in ours. We bought the tickets at 10:30 and along with a few skiers with all the climbing gear we headed off at 11:00. WOW!!! Straight up – we managed to get right to the front of the cable car so we got the full gravity defying effect!
We reached the first transition point and disembarked and headed to the connecting cable car for the next part of the journey. If I thought the last was straight up – this was damn near vertical! The scenery of jagged rocks, crevasses and the odd skier braving this side were impressionable. As we came into dock the cable car was swinging a little and we (being at the end) were not over solid ground until we walked down to the door!
As we came out of the cable car we had choices of direction but we followed the skiers who were all getting roped together and heading out on the ridge. We walked over the footbridge into the other spire. That is right we were in the mountain!
Looking down at the footbridge.To walk over the footbridge and look down was in particular quite scary! The weather up there would cloud over in seconds and then be brilliant sunshine, however it was at least -9 without the wind and we were all wrapped up with double jackets, snow boots, scarves and gloves. Felt like a “weeblel wobble” but can’t fall down. (Remember those?)
I was so impressed – couldn’t believe I was so high and that we were really there.
One of those very tender and emotional moments.
We took the elevator to the summit – it counted up the altitude in metres as we watched!
To be 3842m high was incredible and breathtaking – literally. The altitude effected us all but in particular Hermione and Nev who both had dizzy spells and could only walk a few paces before being out of breath!
This is definitely in my top 10 things we have done – amazing and unforgettable.
I am sure the photos that I have attached do not do the vista and atmosphere justice – but believe me it was well worth the trip!
Naturally there is a cafeteria and souvenir shop up there and even a post office! We had morning tea (at lunchtime) sitting beside a window with a straight drop down. Awesome!!
We stayed up there for about 2:30 minutes – I couldn’t get enough!
The descent was just as thrilling – again we made sure we got to the front for the full effect.
Halfway down we had a wait for the connecting cable car – so we enjoyed our time at the ‘bar’!
Once we were back on the valley floor we looked around the beautiful Chamonix and then headed for home.
We were going to go back through Switzerland but as we entered at the border we were informed we needed to buy an Autoroute ticket – this is valid for a year but it is 30 CHF (Swiss Francs) about €25 or 60 NZ$. (Luckily we were not caught yesterday without it - however the man at the border yesterday never mentioned it!)
This stops having péage everywhere like in France but as we won’t get our money’s worth we decided to turn around and go back through France a different route to what we have been before. Thank goodness for being able to programme in what we wanted into the Navigation system. i.e Avoid toll roads!
We wound our way back slowly stopping in cute little villages and playgrounds – the whole trip back was only 3 hours but we took our time. The Jura – area of France where Besancon is situated, is incredibly and vividly green. The fields were lush and bright. It does have the reputation of being the greenest area and city in France – I think it would have to be true!
We wound our way back slowly stopping in cute little villages and playgrounds – the whole trip back was only 3 hours but we took our time. The Jura – area of France where Besancon is situated, is incredibly and vividly green. The fields were lush and bright. It does have the reputation of being the greenest area and city in France – I think it would have to be true!
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