Chamonix Town

Chamonix is in the north-western Alps of France, 15 km from the Swiss border and 15 km from Italy. The border of these 3 countries meet at 3820 m on the summit of Mont Dolent.

The town is just a few minutes walking distance from our hotel, which is the reason why we went to town quite often in the evening time.

Although feeling tired after a long hiking trip, we went into town to look for foods anyway. Furthermore, I wanted to buy myself a hat so that I could walk comfortably under the bright sun.

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Like most of the towns in European countries, Chamonix is a very beautiful town with its unique charm.

Chamonix is a popular winter sports resort town in France. It is described as "the death-sport capital of he world" because it is a base for almost all types of outdoor activity, especially their more extreme variants, such as ice climbing, rock climbing, extreme skiing, paragliding, rafting & canyoning. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics.

Chamonix is also famous for its spectacular cable car up to the Aiguille du Mi (3842 m). Constructed in 1955, it was then the highest cable car in the world.

I find that most French prefer to speak their own language rather than a foreign one. Of course it is a tourist town that we will find most people who work in tourism can speak English, but still they seem so pride of the own language.

Most of the shops in town are either selling sports related items, souvenir or foods.

We like hanging around in the souvenir shop, wanted to buy something to decorate our new home. Everyone of us had bought some souvenir for ourselves. This beautiful fairy is my selection. She fits to our new home perfectly.

The mineral stones & crystals that were found from the region. Sons were quite fascinated about the stones, but we didn't buy any for them. Instead, I asked then to look around for it in the nature while we still here.

The building is a mixture of new and old.

Must be a remarkable man in Chamonix.

To many kids, they probably saw this remarkable man's high position a challenge. Son was not the only one who climb so high to stand next to him.

I'Arve river which flows through the middle of the town. The river changes colour following the weather. Hot weather causes lots of glacial melt, and the water is chalky white. In cold conditions, the water runs clear. and when it is rainy, the water is brown.

We have walked to the center of the town.

France is famous for foods & fashion. We don't see very fashionable clothes or handbag selling here in Chamonix, neither very fancy foods. Or maybe we didn't understand the French menu?

Wherever we are in Chamonix, we only need to look up to see that we are surrounded by mountains.

That evening, we ended up ordering some pasta for dinner from this street restaurant. I couldn't finished it up, but Vincent could. He sure can eat more than me by now.

While waiting for the foods to come, William kept pestering me to buy him a dinosaur's egg which he found from one of the souvenir shops. He had came up a brilliant idea on how to make that money to buy the egg. He said he could massage my achy muscle, and for every 15 minute, I should pay him 1 Euro. Not wanting to negotiate with him for too long, I agreed.

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On the day before we left Chamonix, we went to the town again after breakfast. The town looks so gorgeous surrounded by beautiful snow mountains.

Vincent joined his brother to climb up to Mr. Remarkable this time.

William asked me to take more photos so that he can use it for his "Show-and-Tell" later on.

He didn't give that 'V' sign for a long time, but it came back in this trip.

The time was nearly 10 am, but still, the place seemed quiet. I could only guess the people either went up to the mountain, or still in slumber land.

Such a beautiful skyline...I wish Chamonix a prosperous long life.