Yesterday walked into Chamonix, spent a couple of hours walking around to buy a few gifts, and then took the train to Saint Gervais, at the other end of the same valley and still at the base of the Mont Blanc massif. What we hadn't fully appreciated is that the Saint Gervais train station is in the lower town; to travel to the upper town (where our apartment is located) we rode a chairlift and then had a short walk to the center of the village.
Saint Gervais is very much a mountain tourist town, but much smaller and quieter than Chamonix. At least until evening... It turns out that June 21 is a major musical holiday in France. We watched the local school bands and a local cover band perform at a gazebo in town, and then in the evening we joined the crowd dancing to a very good rock band on the sidewalk right in front of our apartment building. The town was packed and jumping. (Note: I have a nice video clip but haven't figured out how to add it to the blog because it's over 100 MB.)
This morning we rode the Mont Blanc tram from the village to the little pass at Mont Lachat (2115 meters). Fun fact: in 1937 the French government built a wind tunnel here to conduct research on altitude and icing effects on aircraft. From there we hiked up a nicely graded but steadily climbing trail. We enjoyed great views of Chamonix and the valley, and Aiguille du Midi (the high point we'd visited a few days ago).
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| Chamonix in the valley. Aguile du Midi at the top of the peak on the right. |
