Love at first sight

Imagine the scenery of Whistler, BC, without the commercialism, combined with Georgian Bay, only replacing the fresh water lakes with mountains and glacier waterfalls. I am in love with Chamonix Mont-Blanc. I am incapable of fully describing my surroundings of this past long weekend, and so I’ve posted a number of pictures. However, even they barely do justice to what it was really like in this piece of heaven.

Friday night I took a 12 hour bus ride from Barcelona to Annemasse (which is a French town located across the boarder from Geneva, Switzerland). At 6am when my bus pulled in I quickly met up with Alain who was waiting for me at the train station which is across the street (I only mention this because it was quite lucky, as we really weren’t sure where the bus would drop me off in this town). From Annemasse it’s a one hour drive back to the Magnan’s chalet in Chamonix. They are located just outside of the city in an area called Le Bois Rond / Taconnaz, on the base of Mont-Blanc mountain. Their chalet is one of the 2 original buildings built on their road, as it was constructed in 1714 (see pic). Over the 30 years that the Magnan’s have owned it, they’ve done some slight renovations by raising and redoing the roof, but it’s essentially the same building that it always has been. The below pictures are of the chalet and then the views that you have looking up at Mont Blanc from their front door.

Saturday morning there was some rain and overcast, and so Alain and Miche showed me the town of Chamonix and we walked around the market which takes place every week on Saturday morning. After lunch back at the chalet, the four of us (Myrna, Alain, Miche, and I) went to visit the Church of Notre Dame de Toute Grace, which is a beautiful little church created through the collaboration of pieces of art from many different famous French artists.

Then we dropped by Myrna’s favourite antique shop on the way home to check out what they had. Their chalet is anything but flashy, and the decorating that they have done is with antiques that they have mainly purchased from this shop.

The chalet is beautiful. The fireplace is always lit, and it seems like there is always a vinyl record playing some classical music on the record player. The kitchen is overflowing with fruit and vegetables straight from their garden in Bouc-bel-air, and Myrna’s French cuisine has permanently raised my standards for quality eating. After many rounds of cribbage against Miche, the Maynard name was successfully defended :) It is a lot of fun to feed their dog Nemo from the table,… we should all hope to come back in our next life as a dog in the Magnan family,… it would be a good life.

Unfortuantely, Sunday and Monday were days with weather similar to that of Saturday. Fortunately, when in Chamonix you are very close to two other countries which make for perfect day trips. So, after lunch on Sunday the four us jumped in their 4wheel drive Suzuki and drove the 30minutes to Martigny, Switzerland. Some of the best Swiss wine is created from the vineyards on the slopes surrounding this small city. We went to a museum called Fondation Pierre Gianadda which was showcasing a collection from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York. Once again, just like in Marseille, when I visit any museum with Myrna, as opposed to on my own, I learn so much more about what I’m seeing. It should be called Myrna’s Art 101 crash course for dummies. Of course a trip to Switzerland wouldn’t be complete without the purchase of some chocolate, and so on our way home we stopped just before the boarder and stocked up.

On Monday the weather had still not improved in Chamonix, but according to Alain it was a bit better on the Italian side of Mont-Blanc. So, again after lunch we jumped in the Suzuki and took the Tunnel du Mont-Blanc, to Courmayeur. This tunnel, which closed in 2002 because of serious accident but is now open, is 11,611 meters long running from Chamonix, France to Courmayeur, Italy. It takes about 20 minutes to drive through and it’s interesting to think that when you’re at the very center of the tunnel you’re at least 4km from the surface of the earth in every direction. Courmayeur is a very beautiful town that is similar to Chamonix, only Italian, so much more posh (and expensive). We stopped by a coffee bar for the most expensive, but delicious, cappuchinos any of us would be having for quite some time.

I should mention that Tuesday, August 15th, is a holiday in almost every European country and is therefore one of the few days that the locals who work in Chamonix have a day off in this prime summer season. This day happened to have absolutely perfect weather, and so the Magnan’s reserved a table for lunch at the chalet refuge de mayerers. To get to this refuge we drove away from Chamonix and MontBlanc and partway up another mountain. After parking the car we hiked up a bit farther to an altitude of 1600m where the refuge is located. From this spot you have the ultimate breath-taking view of the entire Mont-Blanc mountain range. This day was by far the highlight of my stay as I could finally fully appreciate how awesome these mountains really are. I was definitely the only non-french speaking person at this refuge for lunch as everyone else there, besides the Magnan’s and I, were locals. This lunch was probably the greatest meal of my life (not exaggerating at all). Wine, fresh bread, salad, pork, potatoes, cheek of the pig, cornmeal balls, cheese, tart, coffee, grappa,… what else could you ever need. I could have stayed up there forever taking in the scenery, eating, drinking, and watching the planes land on a small runway bringing in other people for lunch.

(Note, you probably don’t recognize this refuge, but if you’re an avid James Bond fan than you might remember it from one of the Pierce Brosnan 007 films)

Wednesday morning it was a little overcast when I first got up, but by mid day it was quite warm again. Alain and I took the red Mont-Blanc gear train up to one of the main glaciers called Mer du Glace (Sea of Ice). The train took about 20 minutes to get up to the base of this famous glacier which is a rather popular tourist destination. There are 3 different routes to get down to the glacier from where the train lets you off. Most of the people don’t want to walk, and take a small gondola lift to get down. There is also a relatively easy walking trail, and then last but not least there are some ladders that you can use to climb down. On the way up Alain asked me which way I’d like to go, and of course since the ladders sounded the most exciting I wanted to go that way,… well I didn’t quite realize what I was getting myself into until I was at the top of a 60 meter completely vertical rock face looking down. Needless to say this climb down got the adrenaline running. Throughout these travels I am constantly learning about myself, and what I am and am not capable of, and this day I was pleased to learned that I do not have vertigo and relatively speaking I’m not afraid of heights. (yay!) The views were absolutely spectacular from both the top and bottom of the series of ladders. Alain and I walked around at the edge of the glacier for a little while, searching for rock crystals, but as we hadn’t brought ice crampons with us, it wasn’t safe to go up on top of the glacier.

As you can imagine I was on a complete high for this entire trip. It was like I was walking through a National Geographic magazine for 5 days straight. Chamonix has now tied Georgian Bay for my number one favourite place in the world. At this point I cannot imagine that another trip will be able to top this one.

How did I ever get to be so lucky?