It rained all night and we woke up with water dripping on us….but not too much of a drama! We made ourselves some breakfast and set off for Chamonix. We were thinking of going up the mountain to Aiguille du Midi…but there was a lot of low cloud cover so little point as we would not have been able to have the best view, so we decided to go to Mer De Glace instead. The bus and train don’t run very often so we started walking ….about 3km….45min before we caught a bus.
We arrived in Plac de La Mon Blonc and walked to the funicular train station for Montenvers. Tickets were 30.50 Euro each and we only had about 5 min before departure. The train cugged up the steep track thought the forest and took 20 min to arrive at its destination. Originally built in 1907 the train is an engineering masterpiece. From the train station at Montenvers, you then take a gondola half way down the mountain side towards the glacier face before descending the rest of the way on foot, via a steep and winding staircase. The glacier has been tunnelled in a loop and is lit up inside with multicoloured lights. Small alcoves off the loop contain ice sculptures and photographs of the early pioneers who opened up the glacier. Returning via steps and gondola to the train station above we then got ripped off at the cafe there, paying 17.50 Euro for two toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and one diet coke!
We walked up to the Temple of Nature with an impressive view, then down to the Glaciorium and enjoyed the audio visual displays there. Rejoining the funicular train we travelled back down the mountain side returning to ritzy Chamonix.
