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Chamonix, France -- Haute-Savoie
Where is it?
Chamonix is a well known city in France, mainly for its history as an olympic host city, its winter sport opportunities, and because it is the home to the highest peak in Europe, the Mont Blanc. The town of Chamonix is charming and hosts a community of locals known for loving their mountains and being huge outdoor sport enthusiasts. Because of Chamonix's popularity it has become a place where you can experience the high altitudes of these beautiful mountains without a large output of energy. There are multiple chair lifts, a cable car, and a scenic train that run year round to help tourists get the splendid view of the mountains and the town below.
The Mont Blanc
The Mont Blanc is one of the largest tourist attractions in Chamonix.
The Mont Blanc is the highest mountain peak in Europe and hosts a large number of alpine sport enthusiasts throughout the year for skiing, climbing, and hiking. You have to be very confident in your climbing abilities to make the venture to the peak, climbing up snowy cliffs and up ice walls. If climbing up a mountain of ice isn't your style, fret not, there is an observatory across from the Mont Blanc called the Aiguille de Midi, which you can access by cable car from the city center. From the lookout you can stare straight into the face of the Mont Blanc and see all of the surrounding mountains from a high altitude.
Mer de Glace
Another one of the popular tourist attracts is the Mer de Glace.
The Mer de Glace, or the "Sea of Ice" in English, was once an incredible glacier that resembled a river made of ice. It did not visibly move, but the way that the ice sat along the mountain sides made it seem as if it was a river flowing through the mountains. Even though this was once a wonder that people traveled from afar to see, it is now much less magnificent. Throughout the years, and with the warming of our climate, the glacier has reduced significantly and it is a place that many scientists refer to when when explaining the dreadful effects of climate change on our environment.
I visited the Mer de Glace in October of 2019, and I'm glad that I got the chance to see it before it potentially disappears forever. So If you want to see this beautiful work of nature, I suggest that you visit soon!
The picture here is from when I visited in 2019, and as you might be thinking how underwhelming it is, this is where an incredible ice river used to sit and curve through the mountains. Now it has diminished to this. Seeing it really opened my eyes to the effects that we have on our planet, because it is a literal and visible example of how we can effect nature, for the worse.
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If you're interested in learning more about the progress of our world's glaciers, then check out the "World Glacier Monitoring Service" for data and relevant articles.
How to get there
Chamonix is perfectly located and hour and half from Geneva, Switzerland. In Geneva there is an international train station and a large international airport. Chamonix is also located on the Italian border, with a tunnel connecting the two countries. This tunnel is fairly expensive to drive through, so I would recommend taking the train or a bus for a less expensive trip when coming from Italy. If you're coming from somewhere else in France you can check out the best train connection on oui.sncf, and for more helpful info check out my blog on the cheapest and easiest ways to travel in France.
Mountain sports!
Located next to the highest peak in Europe, what better place to enjoy the mountains than through sports! There are many different ski resorts in the area, however because of it's popularity the price is a bit higher than other locations and there are a lot of tourists during the winter. During the summer there are plenty of trails that leave from the city center, or you can take one of the lifts/trains to a higher altitude to start a hike. (There are passes you can buy that will give you access to a certain amount of lifts, check out the website for more info.) There are lots of options for multi-day hikes as well, with refuges nestled into the mountains and numerous places to camp. Besides skiing and hiking, Chamonix is a hub for other mountain climbing and all other types of mountain activities.
