Today, we traveled by TGV from Paris to Lyon where we rented a car and drove to Chamonix (at least that was the initial plan). There’s so much that’s happened on this trip that I’m going to have to come back to the blog and fill in the details. But I want to try and capture the highlights as best I can to make the process easier later.
Raphael says that no vacation is complete without an unexpected field trip. Today’s field trip started by getting an upgrade with the rental car: We got a BMW X5 which was very nice for the 2.5 hour drive from Lyon to Chamonix. Since we were going to be arriving a little earlier than when our Airbnb was scheduled to be ready, we decided to drive through the Mont Blanc Tunnel so that we could say we experienced Italy during this trip!
The Mont Blanc Tunnel is an amazing engineering feat. It’s over 8,000 feet beneath the surface of the mountain and is almost directly under the Aiguille du Midi (one of the tallest points). The tunnel is 7.2 miles long and is the longest tunnel that I’ve ever driven though.
On the Italian side, we stopped in Courmayeur, which is another ski village. We got gelato (of course) and I purchased a Patagonia duffel bag that I’ve been eyeing. Once we were done with that, we drove back through the tunnel to France and checked in to our Airbnb. Our place is so central (it’s in the middle of the village) and everything is within walking distance once you park.
For dinner tonight, we ate at a really cute (Wes Anderson cute) restaurant. Over dinner, we were talking with another American from New Jersey who had a really good perspective on a lot of current and historical events. He’s actually taking a month to go snowboarding in the various mountain resorts here in Europe, and he gave us some good advice on what to do with our time here.
Tomorrow, we’ll explore the town some more and take some photos. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.