Chamonix Day 2 - Le Tour

Started the day with the goal to hike to Lac Blanc.

But first, let’s grab breakfast. Can you tell we’re creatures of habit? We practically eat the same thing for breakfast at home too.

And coffee from the same place. Something was a bit off that day, the coffee was not as smooth as the day before.

The morning sun was really bright that day.

After breakfast, we went to the Mountain Guide Office to ask if it’s possible to do the Lac Blanc hike.

As expected, they advice against the idea because there were still too much snow up there and it was too dangerous. Since we do not have proper equipments and not even physically ready for it (after the long hike the day before, we were pretty sore), we decided to find a different hiking route, shorter one.

We have decided on the hike, so we went to get some food for lunch first before getting on the bus.

Best bus stop view? You tell me.

Buses in Chamonix used to be free for all guests until recently. But you can get discount if you ask for Guest Card from your property owner/receptionist. I believe it was 2 Euro/person/day instead of 3 Euro for unlimited rides.

You know you’re in France when you see people bringing baguette everywhere.

We dropped off at the last station, Le Tour.

Wondering where did they come from because gondolas are not operating yet. Do they hike to ski down?

The truck was spraying fertilizer which reek of cow manure. Best believe everything we wore that day smells like cow manure, including the bag.

It was very steep and almost entirely ascending with barely flat terrain, on gravel and no big tree to shade us from the excellent sun.

Starting to see Chamonix, Les Praz and Argentiere from up there.

Made it to the Le Tour gondola stop. If you come during the season, you do not need to hike this. Just get on the gondola and start the hike from here to Switzerland border. Our legs were pretty worn out so we only did this first leg of ascend, to take the day easy (wasn’t even that easy lol).

Since it’s off season, even the restaurant up here is closed. But we got to enjoy our lunch with a view in peace, all to ourselves.

Our simple lunch, very French.

There was a couple and a man taking refuge from the sun at the closed restaurant as well and we saw them resuming their hike.

Saw a group of white haired elderlies taking the same route we went up, to go down. Literal (knees) goals!

Lunch done, reapplied sunscreen (avoid snow burn), ready to go down.

These “tiny tulips” are so cute! This route reminds me of Dolomites hikes a little bit

Bumped into this French uncle. He said something to us but we couldn’t understand French, too bad. He was about to go up when we finally reached the starting point.

Reached down at the same time as the group just now.

Our chauffeur waiting for us.

We really smell like cow manure.

Came back to a made up room.

All clean and fresh (better smelling too)! Let’s explore the Chamonix town a little bit more. It was our last full day in Chamonix.

Find someone who looks this happy looking at green shorts.

I only had 1 thing in mind: to get ice cream. Naturally I had to get the Mont Blanc and cant-go-wrong chocolate flavors. Mont Blanc did not really taste like anything much, just overly sweet but chocolate was rich.

Bought dinner and we walked around to find a spot to eat, only to end up at the front door of our hotel. They have some tables and chairs.

Back in front of the Mountain Guide Office to watch sunset as you can see the peaks of the whole French Alps without any buildings blocking them.

The sunset was not as colorful as the day before so we decided to head back since it was about 10pm and we were so tired. And we had to wake up early the next day to catch a bus to Geneva at 7am.

As soon as we pulled up at the bridge nearby our hotel, we saw some beautiful colors. As it turned out, there was a super rare aurora borealis that night, visible in a lot of places in Europe and in the States as well. If only we knew, we would have stayed up and experience that but oh well. Woke up to abundant of videos online and felt so missing out.

Nevertheless, I’m still so grateful to experience this beautiful sunset with my love. I hope you enjoy this short birthday trip, my sayang. To many more adventures insyaAllah.