We found the trip from Geneva to Chamonix was excellent because we started to approach the Alpine area.
Chamonix is a small down at the foot of Mont Blanc (not the pen that you bought at Petaling Street – it’s the highest mountain in Europe at 4810 mtrs) bordering Italy. There’s another town on the Italian side of Mont Blanc (or Monte Bianco as known by the locals) called Courmayeur that we will visit soon as well. Back to Chamonix, beautiful sceneries, mountain-climbing cable cars (at least 4 of them and the tallest one goes up further than 3,000 mtr high), scenic train rides, glacier, paragliding, hiking trails, restaurant above 2,000 mtr high etc. You get the idea and this is just during summer. The place must really comes alive during winter (maybe next trip). As we were approaching our destination, the views from the road started to change and with every change, they just kept getting better and better - as in more beautiful and magnificent. We just couldn't wait to get to our hotel and the kids started having plans of playing in the snow....in summer?????
We arrived in Chamonix at 5.30 pm after leaving Paris at 9.30 am (and hunting for a parking space in Geneva). The hotel, Mercure Chamonix Centre was excellent. We got a 1 double bedroom apartment attached to a living area with sofas that convert into another bedroom with 2 single beds. Overall, quite comfortable.
The great things about the hotel are the excellent location for exploring Chamonix, the beautiful architecture and especially our room, the window that opens to a beautiful alpine scenery. The 1 bedroom apartment also comes with a balcony facing the same scenery which was a bonus.
Some views from the room...
From around the hotels, the views are better. The Mont Blanc was clearly visible and all around, the sceneries were simply incredible.
By the time we settled in, rested a bit, solat, had our belated lunch (or did we have it after Geneva along the way?), we went out to explore the area. It was quite quiet by then as most of the attractions were closed for the day – we did notice the cable cars were not moving when we looked at them from our room window.
However, we then managed to find out way to the town centre and it was bustling with activities – no shopping but restaurants, people walking around and the beautiful surreal surrounding with beautiful building, cobblestones streets, clock towers and various other things that make the fake ones like the one in Bukit Tinggi look...well, fake. There was also a river crossing the town centre (L’arve) which is actually a glacial river – standing on the bridge over it felt like being in a freezer due to the cold air from it.
The town-centre is car-free zone and we spend an hour or so walking around soaking in the atmosphere. Interestingly, as the days get darker the peaks of the mountains, including Mont Blanc were still lighted by the sun giving them such a fantastic focus from afar.
Back at the hotel, it was a quick dinner of Brahim’s rendang, bread and sausages.
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