Charming Chamonix
Day 11
Today is our last travel day, and the fact that our trip is almost to an end is getting a little bit depressing. We're having so much fun exploring Europe, and it's hard to think about going back to our normal life in the States!
We had a short drive over the border to Chamonix and said Au Revoir to Jost. Since we got into town so early, we had most of the day left to explore. Most of our group went to the local glacier you can walk through, but as we had just done that in Switzerland we decided to explore the town.
But first! Lunch. We had our first taste of French culture, and the laissez-faire, over our first meal. We were trying to hurry through our meal so we could get started on our day, but our waiter obviously had other another idea, wanting us to sit and enjoy each other's company. Other patrons were starting their second course as we were trying to hightail out of there. We did a our Rick Steves guidebook walk of town and then heard the mountains calling our names.
Like Lauterbrunnen, Chamonix is in the middle of a valley. While its most well known for Mont Blanc, we first decided to explore Le Brévent, the highest peak on the other side of the valley. This included taking two different cable cars, the second of which was incredibly steep. No peeking for those with a weak stomach! As we arrived to the top we saw we were not the only ones. Rock climbers had just finished their day arriving at the top as the same time we did.
There are a few different areas to walk around, but we mostly just sat and enjoyed our last few views of beautiful mountains. It was going to be awhile until we saw anything like this again. It's amazing to think that these hills will become ski slopes in just a few short months.
Those rock climbers decided to join us on the way down, packing up their gear instead of scaling all the way back down. I don't blame them. After our long, hard day of taking cable cars, we decided to treat ourselves to an afternoon treat of crepes and rosé. I could get used to this!
Right as we got back to our hotel, a flash storm rolled through. Considering how it was actually supposed to rain every day we were abroad, we were so happy we only had rain on two days! Cynthia says she's a good luck charm when it comes to the weather, it never ends up raining when it says it will.
After the storm we went out for a nice dinner, and found a little restaurant around the corner. The flash storm ended up giving us gorgeous views and our second rainbow of the trip.
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Day 13
We woke up super early for our last full day of our trip - too early for breakfast to even be served. It was time to visit Aiguille de Midi, the viewing spot of Europe's highest peak. This is an incredibly popular tourist destination, so to avoid getting stuck in long lines its best to visit it first thing in the morning. The website will let you start reserving spots around 8 a.m. to take the car up, but it actually opens up two hours earlier. We jumped on the 6:30 a.m. ride with no wait at all.
Our first stop at the top was grabbing a croissant. All of a sudden, it became a mini-reunion. Nearly everybody from our group started appearing! I guess we were the only ones to wait for the second ride up, everybody else came on the first one. We're all such savvy travelers at this point.
After walking around the center for a little bit taking in the 360 degree views, we headed over to the platform to see the créme de la créme. For the best viewpoint you first need to take a short elevator ride up. It was quite cold at the top, but also a pretty view! We could see plenty of hikers who were making their way up the summit. Matt, the amateur mountain climber, was jealous he wasn't part of the hike and was telling me everything they were doing.
On the platform there's a glass box where you can walk out on and see below you and get your picture taken. We got in line for that, but then about halfway through line one of the employees said that in roughly 30 minutes the queue to get down would take at least an hour. We looked up and saw a sign saying we still had 30 minutes left, so we decided it wasn't worth it to us to stay. If that's something you are interested in - get there early and get in line first!
For our afternoon activity, we headed back to the other side of the valley for a hike. Cynthia had told us about a trail that was one of her favorites, and we decided to give it a go. We had to talk a bus over to the cable car, but thankfully there was a stop right beside our hotel. The base jumping tourism industry is big in Chamonix, so we watched the sky fill with people while we waited for our bus. A few times I counted up to 27 in the air at once!
We took the cable car up to our starting destination, and grabbed a quick meal at a local hut before we got started. The trail was one of the more adventurous ones that we took, and Matt taught me all about reading the marks for paths as you go along. Unlike him, this was my first hiking trip so you can't blame me! Better on the last day than never. The trail went up and down and was very rocky at some points, but with a few stops we finished it! And our final destination had some gorgeous views of Mont Blanc in the distance.
We decided to stop by another hut before taking the cable car down, and lo and behold guess who we ran into - Cynthia and her husband who had just arrived from the States! He was joining her for a quick trip in between tours and Cynthia wanted to share one of her favorite hikes with him. We were flattered to hear that he had heard of "the honeymooners" and spent some time chatting before going down.
Cynthia had arranged for us to have an optional good bye meal with everybody. As this was a My Way tour instead of a guided tour, we hadn't had any arranged meals with each other, mostly just breakfasts when we would happenstance run into each other. Nearly everybody signed up to join.
We went to a very traditional French restaurant. We started with some fondue, while she and her husband shared their family tips and traditions when it comes to this meal. If you drop your bread in the pot you're paying! And then we moved to the meat and veggie portions that you cook on a hot stone in front of you. We also enjoyed a tasting of some red and white French wine. Plus s'il vous plait! We ended the meal with a delicious blueberry tarte.
While it was a fun evening, it was sad to think that we would no longer be seeing each other every day. We chose this trip so we could have our independence while celebrating our honeymoon, but we ended it with great memories with even better people!
