Jun 22, 2013

Chamonix

In Chamonix we were stunned by the nature and we wanted to see as much as we can while we were there. We saw our first glaciers, we went up high in the mountains, as we have never been before, saw very clear rivers and beautiful forests and last but not least we had the chance to take a closer look at Mont Blanc.
Chamonix
  • Mer de Glace:
After we arrived, the next day we were ready to climb some mountains :) I couldn't sleep too much at night because I was so excited and as soon as the sun came up my eyes were open wide and I was full of energy! We went to hike with some friends and two dogs :)
Danger!!!
The little team
The hike wasn't that hard and everywhere you looked there was something beautiful to see. We had to cross a big snowpatch and it was quite scary but we enjoyed it very much! :) It was still strange for us to see snow in June. And after 3 hours of hike we got to the glacier... The view was amazing! The scenery is like from a different planet! I could've stared at it for hours.
Mer de Glace
There was a little caffé also where we drank our well deserved coffee and ate our last sandwiches.There is also a small train coming up to Mer de Glace that you can take but the hiking path is worth the effort!
Mountain!!!
More mountain...
  • Bossons Glacier
The next day with a bit of muscle fever we decided to visit another glacier. It was a bit cloudy but at least we didn't have to hike in the heat. On the way we got a bit lost and we had to climb on rocks and in the end we found a really good place where we could enjoy the view of the Bossons Glacier. You can see on the rocks how the ice moved and formed the landscape over thousends of years.
Bossons Glacier
  • Argentiére
On the way to Argentiére
Little river
Argentiére is another small village in the valley. There is a very easy hiking path from Chamonix to there and it's more or less flat. And that is where we saw our first rainbow around the sun (circular halo)!
rainbow around the sun :)

Argentiére
  • Aiguille du Midi
Aiguille du Midi
We were thinking a lot about going to Aiguille du Midi before we came to Chamonix. It is the second  highest view point(3842m) in Europe and you get an exellent panorama to the French, Swiss and Italian Alps and of course to Mont Blanc. And the cable car is very expensive also. The return ticket costs 50 euros... And we decided to go up because who knows if we will ever get the chance to see it again.

So we chose a nice day according to the local weather forecast and woke up very early in the morning to take the first cable car that goes up. But for the first time the forecast was wrong and it was really cloudy. We couldn't see any of the high mountains. We were really dissapointed. We waited till 12.00 till the sky got clear and we run to the cashier to buy the tickets.
at Plan de L'Aiguille

The cable car took us first to 2317m (Plan de L'Aiguille) and we spent half an hour there before we went to the top. The view was amazing even from here. The sky was very blue and we could see that there was a cloud sitting on Aiguille du Midi. We were hoping that it will go away soon.
Ice, snow and fog
Inside the cloud
When we went up we arrived in the cloud. You couldn't see anything. We were a bit sad that we are here and couldn't see anything but after 30-40 minutes it started to get clear and in an hour the sun was burning our faces. :)
everything getting clear...
The clouds broke completely and we could see the white peak of Mont Blanc and the other snowy rocky mountain peaks of the Alps. When we looked down we saw many tiny dots moving slowly towards the peaks, some skiers and paragliders. I can't describe the beauty of the view so here are some more pictures:
The Alps
Us and the Mont Blanc
Snow, snow, snow!
The end of the tunnel
Bossons glacier from a different angle
Aiguille du Midi

At around half past five there is the last cable car that goes down to Chamonix.

In Chamonix we never got bored. There was always something to do or see and there are a lot of things left that we didn't see! Can't wait to come back here again! Chamonix was a great start in France. can't wait to see the rest! :)

3 comments:

  1. The mountains is my weakness. Beautiful landscapes, fresh air, snow and different sport activities are worthy to go here .

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  2. Wow! Your trip to Chamonix was so cool. Thanks fore these amazing photos. I like mountains, in every season, but yout post inspired me on spending my weekend here. Please keep it good posting. And do not hesitate to use
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  3. Interesting, great tips and quite a lot for a day, but rewarding tips shared by you.
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