Chamonix

I at once determined to make the entire ascent. But first I inquired if there was any danger? 

He said no—not by telescope.

Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, on Mont Blanc

We travelled on a curvy, steep road and stopped at Lake Gruyere, Switzerland to enjoy lunch, this lovely view and these fun cow sculptures. 

The original tour hotel in Chamonix double booked because of the Ultra Marathon in town so we stayed in St. Gervais which was about a 45 minute train ride from Chamonix. Our bus driver, Celeste, dropped us off in Chamonix  and Kathleen gave us a walking tour to help us find the gondola and the train station.

Read more on Chamonix from Rick Steves

For an early dinner, we located a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves called La Tablée.  Bon Appétit!

One direction you could see para-gliders flying down from the sky!  Some of our tour buddies took the gondola up that side and watched them run off the cliff! The other side that we planned to go up the next day, had quite a few clouds covering the peaks, but every once in a while you would get a glimpse.

St. Gervais

It is a sleepy town where we ventured up toward a park with a thermal bath and found a lovely forested trail and a waterfall!

Back to Chamonix

We made reservations to take the gondola up to Aiguille du Midi a little late in the morning and waited for the wind alerts to stop so we could go up.  It was recommended to take the early morning gondolas and now we know why.  Buy tickets online and get them for the morning.  Those in our group who bought the first run of the day took the additional gondola that crosses into Italy! I was very grateful that we were able to go at all to Aiguille du Midi.

Exhilarating and almost nauseating is how I would describe this ride.  There was a halfway point where you change gondolas, and the second gondola to the top was breathtakingly steep.  It seemed like we were heading directly toward the mountain, then right before we got to it, we were moving upward almost vertically like in an elevator!

Views from the top

Glaciers and icicles and wind! Oh my!

Photo credit for the selfie goes to my buddy, Hali!  We were freezing up there!  Even though the clouds were covering some of the mountain tops, there were plenty of rugged peaks and glaciers to be seen.

Down at the midpoint, we were able to thaw a bit and feel like we could catch our breath.

Down on solid ground in town, we connected with more tour buddies and got crepes before strolling through town along the river toward the train station.

We were back in St. Gervais for the last night of the Rick Steves' Tour.  Kathleen arranged a nice happy hour with the hotel (because of the double booking) and it was a lovely way to say good-bye to our tour buddies.  The next day, Dave and I took the train to Zermatt and from the train could see a few more views of Mont Blanc. Au revoir, Chamonix!

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains; 

They crown'd him long ago On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow.

Lord Byron