Today we took the long, scenic trip from Verbier to Chamonix. Normally this would be a 45 minutes to 1 hour drive via Martigny but this being the mountains, Mother Nature had other plans for us. A week or so before we left a huge mudslide took out the road and it’s closed until Spring. Dave posted on the Chamonix Facebook page asking for alternative routes so that we could avoid going all the way down to Geneva and a very nice person gave us the backroad way via Portes du Soliel and Cluses. Yesterday when we checked google maps, the app recommended that we go over into Italy and back through the Mont Blanc tunnel but since we are travelers with no set time limits we opted for the longer and what we hoped to be more scenic route through France.
It did not disappoint. Sweet little Alpine villages nestled into valleys along the Rhône River between dramatic peaks and snow covered larch forests, the road took us through the Haute Savoie region of France up over the Pas de Morgins.
On the way we stopped in Cluses, by far the largest town we drove through, at a giant Carrefour to load up on essentials and get a French SIM card. So far we’ve found it very easy and relatively inexpensive to get a local number and (at least some) data.
After leaving Cluses we joined one of the main highways for about 30 minutes before turning off for thr Mont Blanc Tunnel/Chamonix/Milan/Turin exit. We immediately started to climb again, passing though smaller tunnels, past frozen sheer rock faces and over waterfalls.
We arrived in Chamonix around 2, dropped our bags and groceries and went out to grab some lunch and check out the town. This time we are staying in an apartment with a kitchen and washing machine. It’s very centrally located to the Aiguille du Midi cable car and the center of town.
This town is very cute and it is full of hardcore mountain people. People who are strolling around with their touring skis, harnesses, climbing ropes and crampons like it’s just their regular thing they do on Saturday.
We had lunch at a pizza place called Restaurant Le Boccalatte with great people watching, the food was just ok. After lunch we walked up to the Main Street which has a store from every possible outdoor company you could imagine and lots of charcuterie shops. We stopped by a second grocery store to grab a few small extra items for the apartment then we headed back to the place to rest and do laundry.
We decided that we wanted to hire a guide for Tuesday after looking at the snow forecast and when the guide that was recommended to us by our guide in Zermatt was unavailable we went back into town to the Bureau of Guides to book one. Second trip, still early and still interesting.
Our French is non existent so it’s no surprise there was at least one misstep during the grocery store outing. Coming back to do laundry we realized that we had purchased fabric softener instead of detergent. Ooops…back into town for the correct bottle that could face our dirty ski clothes. This trip clearly cutting into our happy hour time was not as enjoyable.
This evening we cooked a dairy free dinner, attempted to do laundry and watched French Olympics coverage. Tomorrow will be our first day skiing in France.
