Legendary Chamonix Mont Blanc

Voyager rends modeste. Vous voyez quelle petite place vous occupez dans le monde – Gustave Flaubert

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world – Gustave Flaubert

Travellers come to Chamonix for a variety of reasons ranging from adventures and thrills to simply rolling in nature as well as innumerable pursuits that lie in between the spectrum. However, every visitor here has one common itinerary item. And it’s nothing but, experiencing the legendary “Mont Blanc” massif of the French Alps. Let’s start today’s journey to discover why ‘legendary’ is the perfect match for Chamonix.

Aiguille du Midi, Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi

‘Aiguille’ is a French word for ‘needle’ and Midi is for ‘afternoon’. Aiguille du Midi which is the ‘needle of the noon’ is a 3842m tall mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps, to the southeast of Chamonix. As the sun passes over its summit it indicates noon when viewed from the Church. Thus the name!

About half a million visitors beeline here day after day. It is open all year round, except for the annual maintenance period in November for 2 to 3 weeks and during extremely bad weather conditions. Skiers along with their guides start winter expeditions for the vast Vallée Blanche leading to the Montenvers and Chamonix via the Mer de Glace from here. For the casual vacationer, it is one place that can be directly accessed by cable car from Chamonix valley to reach as closest to Mont Blanc as one can get without any trekking involved.

Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi is gondola ride takes you from the Chamonix village (1033m) to the Aiguille du Midi (3842m) in 2 parts. Operational since 1955, it holds the record as the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world. The ride has an altitude gain of over 2800m in just 20 minutes!

The first section of the panoramic gondola ride is from Chamonix to Plan de l’Aiguille at 2317m. It is the departure point for the Grand Balcon Nord hike to Montenvers.

The second section of the exhilarating gondola ride is from Plan de l’Aiguille to the Aiguille du Midi viewpoint at 3777m. This part is remarkable as the gondola ride is without any support pillar and crosses Les Pelerins glacier.

The viewing terrace/ platform at 3777m offers a breath-taking, 360-degree panoramic view of the sweeping vistas of the French Alps, Italian, and Switzerland. Here you are in the august company of Mont-Blanc 1000 meters above, the Grandes Jorasses mountain, the Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland, and Pointe Helbronner on the Italian border. Being open, it is exposed to elements. Suitable warm clothing and sunglasses are a must.

Let’s take a break here and resume our hike towards Mont Blanc tomorrow.

Salut!

*Image by Simon from Pixabay. I was so mesmerized by the snow-clad, black and white macho Mant Blanc Massif, that I forgot to click the picture of the cable car. Hence had to rely on trusted pal Pixabay 🙂 My soul was back in my body soon and I continued clicking the pictures!

This post is part of #BlogchatterA2Z challenge2022

Click here for posts so far in the “Exploring l’Hexagone” series