Lyon to Chamonix

Thursday 2nd September

We packed up early to go to Chamonix. We had been told there is a nice cable car ride that takes you into the mountains. On the way we stopped off at a beautiful town called Annecy. Such a beautiful place. It is right on a lake that is surronded by mountains. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the water was crystal clear. We went for a walk along the river and Brendon got some really good shots. If you ever go to France, you have to go and check it out. Absolutely gorgeous! There were a heap of young people around and some really beautiful areas where you can just sit and enjoy the scenery. The energy of the town was lovely and relaxed and we wanted to spend the rest of the holiday there! But we knew we had to move on to make it to Chamonix before dark so after a few hours and a lovely meal, we headed off

We thought Annecy was beautiful and were not really prepared for the alps to suddenly come into view. It was absolutely spectacular. And they have tunnels that run directly through some mountains... for kilometers some of them!! Just beautiful. The roads were all windy and narrow in places, but the view was something else. We have some beautiful mountains in Aus, but this was just something else.

Brendon was especially excited when we came into view of Mount Blanc, the largest mountain of the French Alps, because even in early September, it was covered in snow and Brendon had never seen snow before.

The buildings around here have a very Swiss feel to them, i guess they are all so close together that they influence each other.

We checked into our lovely hotel and discovered that our room had the best mountain view! You could lie in bed and watch the mountain. It was just such a beautiful place! We had a nice dinner in the town, which was actually quite a busy little place.

Chamonix lies at the base of Mount Blanc, the tallest mountain in the European Alps (so says wiki, but i have heard different reports). It is in france but extremely close to the Italian border. They filmed "the world is not enough" here for all the Bond fans, and its just a spectacular town! They do lots of winter sports here and there are hikers everywhere with their hiking sticks!

Anyway tomorrow we are off on the cable car up the mountains! SOOOO Excited!!!

Highlights of Today:

• THE ALPS
• Mountain view room
• Brendon seeing snow for the first time
• Brendon taking all of these fantastic shots with his camera!

Lowlights of today:

• Motion sickness in car from windy roads... Lucky no puking!!

(This is the view from our hotel room on the right)