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! :)

Busking in Chamonix

Chamonix

We had an amazing 2 weeks and a half in Switzerland and we were ready to go to a new country we've never been to. Our first stop in France was Chamonix and we ended up staying a week and a half in that beautiful small town.

Busking rules in Chamonix:
We don't know if there is any. We busked 3-4 days in the town at the same spot and nobody seemed to mind it. So just go ahead! :)

Our experiance:
The hitchhiking was really easy from Lausanne. We got the first ride to Genéve than we took a bus to the Swiss-French border, cross the border than we started to hitchhike on the French side. The border controllers were very helpful. We asked them where we can hitchhike and they showed us the spot and after 30 minutes we got a ride to Chamonix.

Mont Blanc

yummy snow! :)

We were suprised because there are not as many French people in the town as we thought. It's really international. Mostly sport lovers visit the town and of course the ones who want to see the highest point in Europe...the Mont Blanc!!!
When we were there it was off-season for turists so there wasn't many people so we spent most of our time hiking and sightseeing in the mountains (once you are here who wouldn't go hiking? :P) but we had time to sing a litlle bit as well.

Hiking in the mountains and singing mountain songs on the way :)

The first time we played, it was a Sunday early afternoon, in the lunchbreak (the shops are closed between 13.00-14.30 pm) and it was a bit rainy and very few people in the town. And amazingly we made 50 euros in 40 minutes! we thought that we will make a fortune here but we thought wrong.

The next days we played 30minutes - an hour and we barely made 15 euros each day. So we were a bit disappointed but we also got invited to play in a pub for 50 euros so in the end it was all good :)

If you have the possibility to visit Chamonix do it! If you love Nature, hiking and mountains it is the best place for you in Europe! You won't regret it! It was one of the places we have visited on Earth which we will never forget!:)