It was a quick two and a half hour flight to Geneva from Stockholm. We quickly made our way through passport control and into the baggage claim. I hunted around for a ATM while we waited for our one checked bag to hopefully come around the conveyor belt. We only check a bag because our trekking poles and my tripod most-likely be not allowed on the plane. There was no ATM, but they did have an currency exchange window where I exchanged enough USD’s to pay for our transportation to Chamonix. We then anxiously awaited our bag to come flopping down the chute. It took its good old time as usual, but it finally did come. Ahh!! That is always a bit nerve-racking. We have been so lucky so many times, that I fear the next time is going to be the one where they lose our luggage.
We then looked around for the Alpy Bus desk which was our transportation to Chamonix. The Alpy Bus was the cheapest I found(~52 EUR for both of us) and they had very good reviews. When we found the desk there were a bunch of others there and we just had to wait for one more person. The other person came pretty quickly and we ended up leaving about 20 minutes early. The drive was around a hour and half and we made several stops before our hotel. We had left around 7:30PM, so it had gotten dark quickly and not much scenery to see. You could just make out Mont Blanc as we came into the valley as some last bits of daylight illuminated the white peak. I was glad we went with the Alpy Bus. I think it was a better move than trying to deal with the French trains which sounded much more complicated.
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They dropped us off at the back of the Hotel Richemond, which was the hotel we would be staying the next two nights in Chamonix. It was a very large, old concrete building and the decor inside matched it well. We quickly checked in, received our very large, heavy keychain, and took the tiny elevator to our room on the third floor. Room was also old style, but clean and comfortable. It had that old world style which really made you feel like you were in Europe. We quickly unloaded and made our way out into town to get some food.
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The Hotel was located on a main walking strip which had several restaurants and shopping. Most of the shops were closed but there was a lot of activity on the street. The North Face Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc was taking place the entire weekend which was pretty cool. There was a whole endurance vibe going which made me feel right at home. We walked around a bit and finally settled on a little Italian place called Casa Valerio which was right on the other side of the river from the hotel. It was a tiny place, but it was packed with people so we figured it must be good. There was a bunch of trail runners in there and a big table of Americans sitting behind us. We had a couple pizza’s, which were great, and some vino. Everything was really good.
We walked around town a bit after dinner and checked out the town. There was this street band marching around town playing this really catchy beat. It was drawing everyone in to see what it was all about. They kind of reminded me of some Mardi Gras-type band. Anyway, I have a video of it which will show you what I mean…
We had a really good night sleep after being awake for over 24 hours and made our way down for breakfast. It was the usual European hotel breakfast of croissants, bread, cereal, lunchmeat, juice, and coffee. I quickly broke my plant-based diet with some cereal & milk and a croissant with butter…Yum! That didn’t take long! I also had coffee which I had not had in awhile either. The view from the dining room was excellent. They had these very large windows that perfectly framed Mont Blanc and the surrounding peaks. It was like a giant 3D picture. There were several UT Mont-Blanc competitors having breakfast too. They were very easy to spot was they slowly hobbled bow-legged around the dining room. Ewwe…I know what that feels like!
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Shoe Shopping in Chamonix
A couple weeks prior to our trip, my wifes’ favorite pair of 10+ year old Lowa hiking shoes decided to self-destruct. This lead to a huge panic in an effort to finding a replacement pair in a short amount of time. Lowa’s current model was not the same quality as before, so that made things a bit more complicated. Also, the fact that there are no good outdoor stores in the Lehigh Valley(PA), forced her to mostly ordering online and driving down to Philadelphia. Our living room began to look like a shoe store with several sizes of each shoe were ordered. The credit card bill also began to rack up with many pairs of $100+ shoes ordered. She eventually found a pair that were not great, but were the best-fitting she could find. They were from Cabela’s of all places! I was teasing her about getting a bunch of camo attire to go with them. Anyway, she finally had hiking shoes but she was planning on looking in Chamonix too when we go there.
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Immediately after breakfast we made our way out of the hotel for some shoe shopping. The first store we stopped in she found a pair of Salewa approach-style hiking shoe that she really liked. She walked around in them for what seemed like forever and then we had to do the obligatory check of other shoes at other stores. Of course we came back to the Salewa’s again. They were not cheap, but hey if they worked it was worth it. While she was walking around I took the shoe box with her old shoes up to the La Post(Post Office) to see how much it would cost to ship home. It was only ~20 EUR which was great. I ran back to the store and she immediately bought the new ones in the Gore-Tex version which was another 30 EUR.
As we were walking down the street, her new shoes started making a clicking noise with each step. We checked them over rigorously, but still could not find what was causing it. So, back we go to the store to exchange them. The salesgirl looked them over, but could not find anything either. The only option was to go with the non-GoreTex model. She tried these and they were better. There was still a little clicking sound, but not as loud as the GTX model. We then exchanged them and the salesgirl refunded us the difference on my credit card. At least we thought she did at the time.
Finally we are done shoe shopping and make our way to the Post Office to send back the Cabela’s shoes. The Post Office is right next to the finish line for the UT Mont Blanc race so there are tons of people there. Just as we round the corner to the post office we see the galvanized metal garage door covering the entrance to the post office. I glance at the time on my iPhone and it is 12:05PM…they close at 12PM on Saturdays! Ugh! We stood there dumfounded for awhile. We were starting our hike tomorrow and they are closed on Sundays. We weren’t sure how long it would be until we got to another town that had a full-fledged post office. She would have to carry an extra pair of shoes for the next couple days at least. Bummer!
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Next, we headed out for a little day-hike to stretch the legs and Denise to try out her shoes a bit. We took part of the trails on the mountainside heading towards La Flegere, opposite of Mont Blanc, to get some views of Chamonix and the snow-covered peaks in the background. The trail we were on was used for the trail race, so runners were coming by every few minutes. We would clap for them and cheer them on a bit. It looked pretty brutal, but I have to say the thought of it started to swirl a bit in my head for a future event. Denise seemed to read my mind as she warned me “don’t get any ideas!”
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As we made our way up the hillside, the path went directly through a little cafe situated on the mountainside called Cafe La Floria. It was covered in beautiful flowers and had an amazing view. Runners were actually running through the seating area, which was quite narrow. We eventually dropped down and looped back to where we had started. We ended up doing around 4 miles or so. Denise’s shoes also stopped the clicking noise during the hike. She was not wishing she would have stuck with the Gore-Tex model. I thought it was a little ridiculous to need Gore-Tex for such a low shoe.
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We arrived back to the hotel, showered up and heading out for some dinner. We got a good recommendation for some pizza from the lady at the hotel lobby desk, so we headed up there. The place was called La Bartravel. It was right across from the Post Office, which we could state at menacingly during dinner. They had super large beers and killer pizza. Another good one. We were really diggin’ the pizza here as you can see. It was really good and probably the safest thing to order since we could not translate most things.
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We then walked around Chamonix a bit after dinner. The street band was out again playing their beats all around town. At one point we saw them overtaking a outdoor dining area at one of the local restaurants which was pretty funny. We headed back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep to get ready for the start of our Haute Route trek tomorrow.
