Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

Just like last summer, we went to Valais, a mountainous canton in the south of Switzerland. This time round, our friends rented a nice little cottage in Les Marecottes for their summer use. The plan was for us to spend two nights there with day trips to the surrounding area and to the famous ski-resort in France, Chamonix.

 

Les Marecottes is really tiny. It’s great for viewing the Mont Blac and the Alps and the Valley from the top. It’s a great basis for trekking around the area as the Alps can be really pretty in the summer as evidenced by hoards of tourists with backpack and hiking poles in the train, on the street, everywhere. It’s got a great jam shop where we get our year-long supply of home-made jam of fruits from the area (their cranberry jam, to be had with meat, is to die for).

 

Chamonix, despite its international reputation as the base to get to Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western Europe, is a beautiful city. I was expecting tacky but that place is a perfect combination of pretty, pastel-coloured buildings, laid-back atmosphere, delicious and non tourist-trap cafes (one of the patisserie has one of the best eclair I’ve tasted), surreal scenery (from the cable car past Mont Blanc anyway), and a combination of artisan food suppliers (oh… the gorgeous Chanterelle studded pate) and American-brand shops (where my husband obtained a very good hiking boots at a very reasonable price). Simply put, we love Chamonix.

 

We took a cable car from Chamonix to Aiguille du Midi and then to Helbronner on the Italian border . Technically, the cable car journey can continue to Valle d’Aosta in Italy and back to Chamonix through the Mont Blanc tunnel so, that day, we could really do a cool thing of breakfasting in Switzerland, having lunch in France and coffee in Italy but we didn’t have the time.

We ascended steeply (approx. 2,800 meters in 20 minutes) in a packed cabin to Aiguille du Midi where the air was thin and cold. Because we were continuing the journey to Helbronner, we were ushered to take the next leg of the journey immediately while our friends stopped there and had lunch in what they said was an excellent gourmet restaurant at 3,800 meters. I was cold and didn’t feel too good. Only later than I realized it was due to the quick ascend and the thin air. It was nothing like I experienced: I was lucid and confused at the same time. I saw the cloud and knew it was a cloud but didn’t really comprehend what that thing was. It was a strange feeling.

Anyway, the second leg was marvellous. We sailed passed by Mont Blac unhurriedly (the whole journey took 40 minutes) above Vallée Blanche and Glacier de Geant. The scenery was simply surreal. Although I don’t understand why people need to hike on ice and stay over night in icy camps, I rather appreciate the call of nature there: it was all about rock, ice, and silence. It was like in the Himalaya range or what I see from magazines.

If the weather is nice, my advice is to forget the cost (the whole trip can be quite costly) and take the cable car trip. It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and is worth every Euro. And go early. The weather can turn around rather quickly.

Addresses:

Aux Petits Gourmands (for the delicious eclair and hazelnut spread)
168, rue Paccard
74400 Chamonix Mont-Blanc
Tel : +33(0)450530159