Category: Travel

The second Monday, I insisted on having some time to wander around town by myself. I left the apartment at around eight in the morning, and I have to tell you, I was amazed at how few people and vehicles were about. Here it is, the start of the week, well into what would be…

It pays, I think, not to dwell too much on what we would be doing if we didn’t have small ones with us. Long high-altitude hikes, overnight mountain stays, lengthy evening meals. Walks in the town, drinks at the bars, trips to the museum. None of this is happening, at least not at length. But…

Not far from Chamonix, in a tiny town called Les Gaillands — you could walk there in an hour or so, although we drove — there is a pleasant park with a well-bolted climbing crag, a pond for fly fishing, and a few nature trails. We spent Saturday afternoon there.     I carried the…

Mark took the boys up to the Aiguille de Midi, and then later I went up with the 14yo as my guide. You get on the cable car, a big bin that holds twenty-five or thirty people or more. It lifts off and pulls you swiftly up the side of the mountain, and lets you…

I don’t have the heart to rewrite it, so here are the highlights. Second hike in the Val Veny turned out more difficult than we thought it would be, with far too much uphill, and very tired and whiny children, and I had to scramble on all fours with the baby on my back, so…

Tuesday we wanted a nice relaxing day after the boys’ and Mark’s glacier outing and my grocery store expedition. So we slept in, and had a leisurely breakfast in the apartment. Then Mark went out to buy picnic items while the kids and I pulled together daypacks. The 4yo carried two water bottles in his…

On Monday, Mark and the big boys suited up in a mixture of gear that happened not to have been packed in the lost suitcase, gear borrowed from me and the 8yo, and gear they rented in town. They headed across the footbridge to the train station to meet the guide. The guide’s name is…

Kitchen and dining area of our Chamonix apartment   View from our bedroom window towards the centre-ville + + + The first thing we did on our first full day in Cham was go to mass, since it was Sunday. There is a lot of variation in, shall we say, pomp, in masses; I was…

This is just going to be a quick recap, because it covers about 24 total hours of travel. + + + Friday morning, as we were getting up having breakfast and cleaning so the house would be ready for us to leave, the baby threw up all over me. He was tested and found slightly…