Villeneuve to Chamonix

As I opened the windows to draw back the shutters I could tell it was going to be a much colder day than the last two. There was a fresh dusting on snow on the vineyards behind us and you could see the snow clouds up in the mountains. I woke up and did some brief study since my brain kinda self imploded by the amount of stuff I need to remember just to complete the wound dressing in the skills section of my exam. Safe to say the UK do it very differently to how we do it in NZ and even in ED we don’t have time for that kind of carry on. It’s more of a throw some saline on it, dry it with some gauze and stick a dressing on with a “ oh the ward nurses have much more fancy dressings upstairs so they will sort it out when you get there but when just have the basics down here in ED”. The other two skills stations are basic life support (which will hopefully be ok since I have done advanced life support) and an intramuscular injection which will be a lot easier for me to wrap my head around. We left the place at about 11.30am and we knew shortly afterwards as we got onto the motorway that we were going to have an issue with snow today. Cars coming the opposite way to us were covered in snow and also one of the signs had a large cross beneath it prompting us to check whether the road in was even open since I couldn't translate the sign fast enough to understand it. We really should have looked at this before we left the house as it said for the route we are taking into Chamonix snow tyres and chains are required..which we didn't have. The other way via Geneva said that snow tyres are recommended but not required and that really should have been the route we took in our small two wheel drive Citroen with summer tyres on despite it being slightly longer. We decided that if we did have troubles we could always turn around and try and enter it from that side of the mountains which would add another 3 hours onto the drive but it would mean we could get to the Airbnb we had already paid for. As we got closer to the turn off to Chamonix you could see the snow line where part of the vineyards were in snow and the rest weren't. We entered the first pass which were switch backs up the side of Mont de l'Arpille and as we got higher and higher the snow got thicker and begun to stick to the road. Since neither of us had been anywhere near this area before we had no idea how many passes we were expected to drive over before we reached Chamonix and Lew tried to get me to look at the topography map on google to tell him how high up we were going to be driving. It was basically impossible since the writing was so small and all I succeeded in doing was making myself feel sick as we drove on the windy road. We didn't have any issues getting up this pass and Lew frequently tested out the braking and steering capabilities of the car much to my detest since I never got any warning. We reached the top of the pass and the road continued down the other side and it was at a much steeper gradient that what we were just driving on. A car had gone completely off the side of the road which didn't make me feel any more confident at what we were doing. Basically we were those stupid tourists that try and drive rental cars with no chains over some of the passes we have back in NZ and get stuck in heavy snow having to be rescued since it would be bad promo for NZ to leave them up there to freeze overnight. Sure enough testing the car out again on the iced up road it had put it's ice skates on and there was no way we were going to be able to stop in a hurry. About halfway down the hill leading into the town of Trient on the border of Switzerland Lew said that we had just made the choice to carry on as there was no way we would be able to get back up this road without chains. We still had about 30 minutes left according to google maps and I was starting to get concerned we would have to ditch the car on the side of the road and find a bus to get us in. There were plenty of snow covered 2 wheel drives littering the carparks on the side of the road making this option seem rather likely. Lew continued onwards and we crossed over the border back into France once again not passing any border control since France and Switzerland have free flowing borders despite Switzerland not being part of the EU. We passed through the small towns of Vallorcine and Argentiere and the sun began to come out burning holes in the icy road and making us much more confident about reaching our destination. Sure enough looking at the maps we were in the valley where Chamonix is anyway so no more climbing was required.

Another 15 minutes later following our Airbnb host Freds instructions we found where we would be staying for the next couple of nights just on the outskirts of the heart of Chamonix. We had a free outdoor carpark attached to the place and the apartment was on the third floor of the building of ski chalets. It was pretty tiny but used the space well since the bed retracted back up into the ceiling so there was room for a living room and full kitchen. After unloading all our stuff we headed out to find a baguette to have with our soup for lunch. Thankfully being back in France it wasn't hard to find a baguette and we enjoyed the short stroll around the neighbourhood admiring the way the sun danced on the peaks of the surrounding mountains. We shared a portion of leftover thai pumpkin soup and also some noodles with bread before going back out to explore town. They have every sporting/adventure store here you can imagine from Rossignol, Ice Breaker, Mammut, Roxy, Billabong - you name it. It was a pleasant afternoon walking around in the sunshine with the occasional snow flurries from unseen clouds. We found a tourist centre who were hands down the most helpful we have found so far and gave us some options to take the Montenver train to see the glacier or to use our guest pass (which she gave us after providing details of our Airbnb host) to get free access to all public transport, the museum and also the swimming pool. Since we were keen on some hiking as usual she directed us across the road to the high mountains office in the building Maision de la Montagne (top floor). Heading in that direction next the women there was also very helpful and gave us a walk starting from up behind the church next to us to the town of Les Praz through the hillside  for two hours. There was also an option for us to walk down from the glacier meaning we would only have to pay for a one way ticket but she said this would be very wet and slippy. Feeling pretty pleased with the options we had and the fact that it was finally supposed to be sunny for the next two days we continued wandering around the city picking up a few items for fajitas on the way home. Lew played chief tonight since this is one of his staple dishes. Check back in for an adventure tomorrow! Shannen & Lewis xo