Chamonix

 Today our journey to the start line began. We met our friends at the airport and we were collected by Luca - known from here on as BIG hair Luca! He had some sort of frizzy Afro thing happening.  Luca drove us for an hour from Geneva to Chamonix/Mont-Blanc , France

This place is amazing. The huge snow capped peaks surround the quaint village. It is a busy place with lots of tourists enjoying the warm summer’s day. But those mountains! Everywhere you looked was the towering mountains surrounding Chamonix.


It’s almost unreal, like a painted back drop. Running through Chamonix is a very fast flowing river. It is fed by the melting snow and has that strange colour.

There are lots of shops with everything from souvenirs (of course),  to bike hire, to sports stores; they’re places to book tandem paragliding adventures, and chair lift rides.  There anre many different restaurants as well: French, Indian, Japanese, Italian and more. We spent our time exploring the village. It was delightful with bright flower filled hanging baskets, cobblestone road sections and chalet style buildings.






We had a delicious lunch with fresh bagels and salad. For dinner we had a local comfort food: Tartiflette. Essentially, a potato bake type dish. It was excellent.

We have a couple of days/nights here in Chamonix. Tomorrow the whole group will meet for the first time at breakfast. There are 12 in our group and our guide is going to give a tour of the town tomorrow. In the evening, the guide will give a detailed briefing on what to expect on our hike. We step off on Friday. The first day is 6 hours of walking.





Our breakfast this morning. The baguettes are beautiful and even more so filled with French cheese and ham. Yum.
Chamonix happy snaps!
That is Mont Blanc in the background.
Again Mont Blanc in the background. This was our view while we ate dinner.  Just a little bit spectacular!

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