Chamonix, France

We made it to the town of Chamonix without much issue (sure, Jackson's driving in the mountains meant I'd chewed through most of my fingernails), but our GPS could not find our hotel so things got a little tricky once we got into town. We went down dead-end roads, got all turned around and pulled some illegal maneuvers right in front of some unhelpful policeman, but in the end we found our hotel and it still had some free parking available. YES!

We got all checked in and then decided to explore the little village we'd be calling home for a few days. It was pretty cloudy so we could not really see the mountains that we knew were surrounding us.

"I bet they take senior pictures here"

"Seriously."

Each city around here has a train station

Again with the beer

Dinner is served

We found an excellent pub in town, Elevation 1904, with outdoor seating so we decided to grab dinner. My salad was just what I wanted and Jackson's sandwich and fries were great, too. The prices here in Chamonix were much less than those in Switzerland, too, so it was a refreshing change not to be too worried about the price of our meal. All of this for only $37.99!

Note: We try to keep dining at around $100 per day when we travel in Europe and in Switzerland that sometimes felt impossible!

The view from the hot tub

Our favorite part of the hotel we stayed in, Chalet Whymper, was the hot tub on the back deck overlooking the mountains. It got cool in the evenings so sitting in the warm water checking out the view was quite nice. They also had a dry sauna where we spent quite a bit of time. This hotel had just been renovated in late 2017 so it was very nice. Our only issue was, again, the lack of air movement when we were sleeping. We were on the first floor so I didn't like having the windows without screens wide open. Otherwise, it was really all we needed!

We had breakfast at the hotel that Thursday morning which featured excellent (French) bread. Then we talked to the innkeeper and she recommended that we TRY a hike she had done the week before with her Cocker Spaniel. She seemed to think that we wouldn't make it all the way to the restaurant, but that we could give it the old college effort. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

We walked through town to get the hiking trail and the clouds had cleared so everything was simply gorgeous.

Chamonix showing off

Let's do this!

Views back towards town

Listen, I'd been annoyed at the innkeeper for acting as if we could not do this hike. Turns out, she was probably correct. That said, I'm quite stubborn and there was NO WAY I was not making it to this restaurant she spoke so highly of that morning. The hike was pretty much straight up via a ski slope and then turned into the woods for more climbing. I think I almost died a few times. It had been a long time since a hike had just been straight up without many switchbacks. I longed for switchbacks.

Alas, we made it to the restaurant. The owner offered me "lemonade" which in my delirium I'd allowed myself to believe would be lemons, sugar and water. No. It was a Sprite-like drink. So gross. I drank it to avoid being rude, though. Jackson got a beer. Shocking. We were the first people to reach the restaurant that day (most sane people take the train up and stroll over to the restaurant via a flat path) and she needed a little help with some repairs she was making. Jackson was able to help her so my lemonade was free. Score! :)

Looks like we made it

Beer and "lemonade"

The view from the top

Really exhausted Petefish

Look how small the town looks

Going back down the moutain

This doesn't show how steep this was

The climb back down was almost worse. It is worth noting that on the way up we passed no other hikers. I had to start playing music because it made death feel better. On the way down we passed a few other crazy climbers who were subjected to my playlist of hits from artists including Drake and Terry Jacks. How's that for variety?

Anyway, we made it down and I was elated to be finished with this brutal 5+ mile journey. We went to tell the innkeeper that we made it and she was finished with her shift and on vacation for a few days. I wanted to leave her a victory note but was able to refrain. Normally 5 miles is not that tough, but this just had no flat parts!!

Praise Jesus, we are back in town!

A little snack while we waited on laundry

Jackson loves foreign laundromats

Since we'd killed ourselves on a couple of hikes and now had the clothes to prove it, we decided to do a quick load of laundry while we explored town a bit. The laundry was much easier here than in Switzerland and cheaper, too! We met a nice couple from Texas while we cleaned our clothes and snuck over to a nearby restaurant to share a quesadilla.

Laundry with a view

Seriously going for the prettiest views ever from a laundromat

We finished our laundry and headed for another hot tub session. My aching bones needed the soak. Eventually we got cleaned up and headed for dinner in town. We'd seen this adorable place right in the heart of town that I wanted to try called Restaurant Josephine. They had a salmon pasta that looked amazing. Since food had been less expensive in France, we decided to splurge on dinner our final night there.

Salad and soup

Sausage for him, salmon for me

All of this for $72! Switzerland prices make all other pale in comparison! All was well and I was enjoying my meal until Jackson asked me how I liked my fish eggs. Excuse me? I thought the orange little balls were citrus flavoring. It turns out I'd been eating roe which are salmon fish eggs.

The moment I realized I'd eaten fish eggs

Luckily, I was able to not vomit at the dinner table and held it together quite well. The waiter came by and wanted to know why I'd not eaten more so I told him I'd filled up on their excellent bread and salad. This was somewhat true. I also felt like a monster for eating fish eggs. I left that part out.

We headed back for another hot tub and sauna session before calling it a night. I'm proud to report that my digestive system took the fish egg incident like a champ and I didn't die.

STUNNING

Petefish

We woke up on our final morning in Chamonix to the clearest skies we'd seen so we strolled around town before grabbing breakfast at the hotel. It was a little chilly, but the most picturesque place I think I'd ever seen. We debated sending for MacKenzie and just staying in Chamonix forever but decided we'd better keep moving and headed back to Switzerland to finish out the trip!