Travel: France – Annecy & Chamonix

“Mountains, I want to see mountains, Gandalf.” – Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

In the months (yes, months) leading up to our trip, Joye and I must have repeated this quote from our favorite movie trilogy at least one hundred times. With the exception of Dogon country, Mali is flat, and we often find ourselves craving elevation. So we had long been anticipating our first trip to the snow-capped peaks of the French Alps.

We started this part of the trip is style: first-class high-speed train tickets from Paris to Annecy, a pristine village perched on the end of a crystal-clear lake approaching the great mountain range. We intentionally planned for a seven hour lay-over here, so we had time to explore (which was also made possible by our light packs). During our day there, we promenaded along the village’s canals, took a boat ride to see the mountains better, and slept in a grassy park under a tree. It also happened to be Annecy’s market day, which was so different from Mali in terms of the selection of foods available (strawberries instead of mangos, sausage instead of goat meat, cheese instead of nothing), but so similar in that it was a warm community event. We bought some regional specialties - seasoned sausage and goat cheese – and a basket of strawberries.

 

Our day ended with a winding train ride up into the mountains and into the Alpine village of Chamonix, famous for its view of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the region. Our studio apartment came with a complimentary bottle of wine at a local Irish pub, so we promptly headed out and ordered nachos, real burger and fries, and a pot pie. This was only the start of wonderfully familiar meals to come. Because of our budget, after the restaurant that night, we pretty much only bought groceries. But since our studio came with a mostly-equipped kitchen, this allowed to eat many “delicacies” that are not available in Mali, such as ham sandwiches, cereal with milk, and canned ravioli. However, our last night we splurged and requested an order of tartiflette from a nearby bakery to eat in the studio. Supposedly, tartiflette is only butter, cream, ham, potatoes, and Reblochon cheese, but it was more than that; it was life-changing. Joye has day-dreamed about it every day since.

 

But when the French Alps are right outside your door, you think about more than just food. As expected, we spent much of our time having adventures. Our first morning we spent exploring what it feels like to sleep-in (since it’s to hot to do so in Mali), and then wandered around the boutiques and rues of Chamonix – a quiet, restful day.

However, for the following day, Easter, we had more ambitious plans: to ascend the highest cable car in the world to the Aiguille du Midi, a rock pinnacle turned observation station for the most beautiful section of the French Alps. Despite a little cloud cover, the view from up-top was spectacular, as well as the biting cold and the fresh frosty mountain air. Joye even found a patch of untouched white powder to make a snow-angel. Then, to round out a very spiritual day, we caught the evening mass at small church, which, while in French, was very peaceful.

 

After a day of high altitudes, the next day was planned to keep our feet on the ground, hiking. We basically just found a few trails and started, quickly finding ourselves climbing through a thick wood on a warm spring day. At many times we were reminded of Michigan – the home-country – but at others we found ourselves staring across a steep valley which seemed more reminiscent of the Rockies. We stopped for a picnic lunch at a boarded-up chatlet, and headed back down into Chamonix. We arrived just-in-time for a rain storm, which led us to finding some hot chocolate while doing a load of laundry.  We then savored our studio     apartment, our bedroom loft with its skylight, and the selection of British television channels for one final night before packing up and going to bed.

 

The French Alps were absolutely incredible, but a full day of travel across the country of France starting the subsequent morning brought us into a new location, and the last and final part of this blog series. To be continued…

- James (& Joye)