On Top of the Alps!

Laura's last day of Fall Break was Monday, so checking the weather and seeing that it would be clear, we decided to take a trip to the French Alps. It is a good thing that we have a Garmin, because getting into Chamonix was a buffet of round-abouts. The good news is that as far away as Mont Blanc looks from our bedroom window, it only took 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Once there we took a gondola up to the Aiguille Du Midi. From there we could get  super close to the "White Mountain" or Mont Blanc which is the the tallest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe. The first picture here is taken from below in the town of Chamonix, France. This is where the first winter olympics was held. They were gearing up for ski season to begin. The town is quaint--full of Fondue restaurants and patisserie (pastry shops) where we treated ourselves to a little tarte aux pommes.

In these two pictures you can see Laura and I braving -10 C, plus robust wind with Switzerland behind us. In the Foreground is the ice cave that we just came through. BRRRRRR The second picture shows the top of the mountain and the cables from the Gondola, but you have to look really closely to see the cables. As we descended we could hear the ice falling on the gondola from the hook sliding down the cable. YIKES!

 Behind us is a huge glacier and France beyond that. The wind was really whipping up around us.

After going through another ice cave we came out into full sun and less wind. YAY!  Behind Laura and I is our beloved Mont Blanc. 

Along for the day was our good friend Kevin Cole from Saratoga, California. He was here for a stop over after attending a conference in Lisbon, Portugal. We were thrilled to show off our pretty Alps and from where we stood we could see, France, Italy and Switzerland.

Here is a picture of the valley below. As you can see we were way above the clouds.