Honeymoon Part 3: Chamonix Mont Blanc, France

Chamonix Mont-Blanc is a picturesque resort-town just across the border of Switzerland and an easy way to access a spectacular panoramic view of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in mainland Europe. After a relaxed evening in Geneva, we woke up early to secure bus tickets (we used easyBus) to Chamonix. We packed up our daypacks and took a short walk from our hotel to the bus station.

The early morning bus to Chamonix takes about an hour and 15 minutes and we arrived before 9AM. Based on the amount of cloudiness in the area, I was feeling skeptical about whether making the trek would be worth it. You know those moments when you travel somewhere and the weather is iffy but you don’t want to abandon your plans because sunk costs? Anyway, I got over my anxieties and went on our way.

Upon arrival, we started the morning with some coffee and pastries from Moody Coffee Roasters (most restaurants didn’t serve anything substantial until lunch) and hoped for the clouds to disperse (which they did!), then walked across town to buy tickets for the Aiguille de Midi cable car station The whole trip to the top involved a couple of cable car transfers. The views were already spectacular on the first leg, but they only got better from there. Compared to all my other cable car trips thus far, this one topped the list; what awaited us was breathtaking - literally and figuratively!

Aiguille du Midi - going all the way up to that tower on the top at 3,482 meters (12,605 feet)!

Clear as day from the top! A far cry from the morning haze. Given how high it was I probably didn’t have to worry that much about cloud cover.

The area has plenty to do - a glass box where you can line up to take a photo, information exhibits, and a multitude of viewing platforms to enjoy the view. The cold mountain air and wind was pretty jarring - hold onto your hats and don’t drop your phone over the terrace fences!

Craggly ridges as far as the eye can see.

At the bottom left of this photo, you can see tracks left by skiiers!

A long way down to the valley.

After wowing ourselves into some altitude discomfort (even powerwalking left us breathless), we trekked back down for some lunch, then walked over to take the Montenvers train which would give us access to the Mer de Glace cable car and the trail to the ice grotto - a man made ice cave (arguably safer than the random ice cave we almost wanted to check out in Alaska). The train ride was only 20 minutes long but rewarded us with plentiful scenery.

The red is so striking against the white and blue of the mountains.

There is an option to take a cable car to bypass part of the trail to the grotto. Even after that, there was a decent walk taking us 430 steps down through former endpoints of the glacier to the ice cave. Glaciers are the most compelling visual evidence of climate change and I am always saddened by just how much they deflate and shrink every year. I couldn’t believe the difference in the size of Mýrdalsjökull in Iceland in the 3 year gap between visits.

Metal walkway through the path of the melting glacier.

In 1990, the glacier was up to here! You can’t even see the terminus from here.

The grotto has to be dug out every summer since the glacier moves about 70 meters every year (source).

Glacial ice in beautiful Tiffany blue.

We reboarded the train back to Chamonix to do a time check, then decided to take a bus to Les Bossons to see one more glacier - the Glacier des Bossons. There is a chair lift that can take you to a short trail to view the glacier as well as a chalet for some eats.

Following the side trip to Les Bossons we headed back to the Chamonix station to board the bus back to Geneva. A worthy day trip for sure, one that could warrant a second go for how much there is to do.

Part 4 will be our day trip to Gruyère (yes, the home of the famous cheese!) and walks among the UNESCO-recognized Lavaux vineyard terraces bordering Lake Geneva.