Explore europe in a campervan

Our days in Chamonix were spent with Simon on the mountains and me in the apartment where his friends were staying. Simon first met Anthony in Chamonix several years ago when he joined him and a mutual friend, Damien, at the last minute - booking a flight for the following day when he heard they were heading to the slopes! Anthony is a magician and came out with his assistant and mate Joy, and her boyfriend Oz.

It was lovely to have a warm apartment to spend my days in, with plenty of space, reading material and a hot shower! We were made very welcome and more-than availed ourselves of the facilities, stopping in for the biggest takeaway pizza I’ve ever seen one night and generally only going back to the van to change and sleep.

On my third day in I had decided to go on a bit of an adventure havig seen some details on the piste map. I took a ‘rack and pinion’ train from Chamonix centre which took me around 900m up the mountain! The views were superb and it was good to finally spot some Chamonix pistes as you can’t see any from the town. The train stops at Montenvers at 1900m altitude.

I was stood above the Mer de Glace (sea of ice); the largest glacier in France and third largest in the Alps at over 4 miles long and 200 metres deep. I’ve never seen a glacier before and, although well covered with snow hiding the full impact of the ice, it was a stunning sight. The river of ice snakes into view betwee two steep peaks and really looked like a shot from the animated film Ice Age!

From the train station I took a slightly scary gondola lift down the steep descent to the top of the glacier to look inside the ice cave. The cave has been cut as an attraction for many years since the glacier was discovered (by two English men), but pickaxes and mules have given way to electricity and machines - only 17 years ago though! It has to be recut each year as the glacier moves at a considerable rate of 90 metres per year, or 1cm each hour!

The glacier and Montenvers became a popular destination in the early 19th century, particularly for the literary elite seeking inspiration from the breath-taking scenery and is now a base for hiking all year round and a stopping point for skiers and snowboarders tackling the famous off-piste Vallee Blanche run. At first I was surprised to see groups of skiers, boarders ad even hikers in snowshoes arrivig at the top of the ice cave, popping in for a visit then getting the train back down to Chamonix centre - definitely a trip we’d like to undertake one day (with a guide of course!)

Oh and Simon had a good time snowboarding too, but I can’t expand much on that! Another old friend, Damien, arrived two nights before Simon and I, and Joy and Oz left. Damien is a much less experienced snowboarder so he got left on the nursery slopes tackling the drag lift on his first day, before returning to the apartment early and retreating to the spa in the hotel next door!

We had a great time being properly ‘on holiday’ in Chamonix (eating and drinking accordingly!) and it was lovely to meet old friends of Simon’s and new friends too. Thanks for your hospitality guys!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Diary, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.