lauriechamonix

LAURIE'S JOURNAL

CHAMONIX

    AUGUST 23, 2003
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     AUGUST 30, 2003

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Chamonix - Page 1

    8/23: Off to Chamonix. We walked to the train station so Eva, MaryAnn, Jack and Jim could buy their train tickets and then we got the tram to the other small, older train station (Gare Eaux-Vives) on the other side of Lake Geneva. Our train didn't leave until 11:10, so we had about an hour and a half wait at the station. We had an interesting experience while we waited for th train. A woman showed up about 10:15 with tickets to another town in France for which she had to make 3 train changes. Her ticket listed Eaux-Vives as the station to leave from in Geneva, but her train itinerary showed the main train station, Gare Geneve. She had just come into Geneve station about 9:30AM and was supposed to leave from there at 10:30, but she took the train out to Eaux-Vives station because it was printed on her ticket. She realized her mistake when she got to the station and was all upset and came over to ask us for help. The problem was she spoke only French and we spoke only English. We helped her though, and Shari looked in her train timetable book to see if the woman could take the 11:10 train from Eaux-Vives and make her connections somewhere along the line. There really weren't good connections, partly because some of the trains run less often on Saturday, so we suggested she go back to Geneve station and talk to the ticket people there. Jack and I walked with her back to the tram stop and helped her buy a tram ticket. She was so upset that she was on-and-off crying, but she gave me a big hug and kisses on both cheeks when we left her.
     We had two train changes on our ride to Chamonix but everything moved on time and we arrived at 1:25PM. We walked to the Interhome office to pick up the keys to our apartment, but it was closed until 3PM. We walked around town for awhile and it is beautiful here. Mont Blanc (15,772 feet) is just above the town, with lots of snow on it. There are some interesting looking cable cars that run pretty far up the mountain.At some point during the week we will take a ride up.
     After we got the key at 3PM we walked to the bus stop to wait (again) for the bus to our apartment and we finally arrived there about 4PM. The apartment is small - a living room area with a bedroom alcove with 2 sets of bunk beds and a pull-out sofa, a well equiped small kitchen (there is a small table in the kitchen and a bigger one in the dining room area), and 2 bathrooms (one with a toilet and sink, and one with a shower). There is also a wonderful porch with a table and six chairs, and a small sofa. The view is spectacular, looking up at Mont Blanc. I am going to sleep on the porch tonight.
     After we settled in, 5 of walked back towards town to go to the grocery store and we found one only a 20 minute walk away. We bought lots of groceries for breakfast, lunch and dinners. We had a nice pasta and salad dinner at the apartment and then just sat around for the evening.

     8/24: We were up early, before 7AM, had breakfast,walked down the street a bit and started hiking at 8:15. we wereon a path for about 10 minutes, then we ended up on what looked like a goat path going very steeply up the mountain. We stayed on the non-path sort of bushwacking for about 45 minutes and then we got back on a regular path.
     It was a lovely day for hiking - a little hot but some breeze. We hiked up about 1,000 meters (about 3,280 feet) today to about 6,500 feet. The whole time we hiked, we saw paragliders. It was so beautiful to watch them floating in the air with all different colored parachutes. Most were tandem but some were solo fliers. I took lots of pictures of them. We are considering doing the paragliding and we will check out the cost of it.
     We hiked up to where the first Brevant cable car stops near the top of the mountain and went to eat our lunches in the restaurant there. Then we walked over to where the paragliders took off. I can just imagine how wonderful and thrilling it must be to hear the rush of air in the parachute and then feel yourself lifted off the ground and then start floating.
     We started hiking down about 1:30PM and got back down to Chamonix about 3:45PM. We went to the grocery store and took the bus back to the apartment. Jack and Jim decided to go out for dinner tonight, but Eva, MarAnn, Shari and I each bought something to cook at the apartment. It was so nice to walk back and sit on the porch and eat hor d'oeuvres and have a beer, even though no one but me is much of a drinker.
I do like a beer and/or wine after a long day of hiking.

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