Forks in the Trail: Alps Weekend

Royce: Our sudden move to London kept us from getting to Chamonix, France to do some research into spending the winter there. We were interested in learning the area and making some contacts so that we could have a better understanding of what we are getting into and to help in securing housing from afar. A while back we decided we should just fly over and check it out despite the fact that we may actually end up in Poland for the winter for work. We figured it was better to have done the trip if the Poland job does not work out.

We flew from London Gatwick airport on EasyJet into Geneva, Switzerland where we picked up a rental car and immediately headed for Chamonix. The drive from Geneva to Chamonix was amazing. Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, is visible for most of the trip and is very impressive. Chamonix sits right at the base of Mont Blanc in a deep glacier valley positioned at the intersection of France, Switzerland and Italy. In fact, a highway tunnel starts in Chamonix and goes all the way through Mont Blanc into Italy and the valleys leading into the Mediterranean.

Our first mission in Chamonix was to find food. We found a Swiss restaurant with a great fondue special for two and thought we would give it a try. The combination of a huge amount of bread, glasses of wine, fondue full of cheese even and more wine left us feeling a bit tipsy and full so we decided to walk the downtown and check out some of the stores.

Chamonix is absolutely packed with outdoor and mountaineering stores! We toured just about all of them and then found a hotel room in the downtown area. It was very weird beacuse there was a full blown crew and cast filming some movie that must have been based in the 1940's. The area around our hotel was packed with extras in full 40's dress and all the cars and stores along the street were all from the 40's. It was actually very interesting to watch.

After getting checked in we decided to drive up the valley to get a better feel for all the ski areas and small towns along the way. We ended up passing into Switzerland and driving around little remote alpine valleys above Martigny, Switzerland. Another beautiful area! I really think I could live in the Alps. It has everything I love to do in one place practically. We finished the day by driving up as close as we could get to the big glacier that comes nearly right into town.

The next morning we had crepes and a french omelette and did some more touring around Chamonix to learn a bit more about the place. We decided to return to Geneva via Martigny, Switzerland and a little 2 lane road instead of taking the motorway. It was a bit longer but even more picturesque. We dropped into Martigny and headed north towards Lake Geneva. We ended up getting a hotel in Nyon, about 15 miles form the Geneva Airport. We had dinner on the shore of Lake Geneva and just enjoyed Nyon and its great waterfront. Lake Geneva is very clean and a lot like Lake Tahoe in appearance.

The next morning we left Geneva very early and I got back to work about on time. All in all the trip was exactly what we hoped for. We loved Chamonix and the Alps, we now have a solid understanding of the area and feel confident we can get set up to live there via the web if we need to.