Chamonix, near Mont Blanc. We were pleasantly surprised at how attractive it was. I guess that’s because I had only read accounts by mountaineers and climbers, and they emphasized how touristy it is and how the French climbers are so sloppy and leave garbage all over the campgrounds. So here are a few pics, mostly of the architecture. We didn’t see the infamous campgrounds.
Chamonix, near Mont Blanc. We were pleasantly surprised at how attractive it was. I guess that’s because I had only read accounts by mountaineers and climbers, and they emphasized how touristy it is and how the French climbers are so sloppy and leave garbage all over the campgrounds. So here are a few pics, mostly of the architecture. We didn’t see the infamous campgrounds.
A famous casino:
Excellent ice cream:
A river runs through it, I remember not which:
Pat and a film crew (explanation upon request):.
Horace Benedict de Saussure, a botanist who offered a modest sum to the first person to climb Mont Blanc. Two locals managed it, and de Saussure was actually the third. As you might imagine, the finger is pointing to the peak.
Pastoral scene:
Hotel near Chamonix:
Eglise Notre-Dame de Toute Grace du Plateau d’Assy:
A great 20th century church next to our B&B. The exterior and interior paintings and the windows were painted by dozens of well known French artists, like Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Georges Braque and Marc Chagall. who volunteered their work because of all the TB sanitariums in the area. It was dark inside, so I turned the flash off the little point and shoot camera and propped it up on a pew for a tripod. Amazing what a cheap camera can do these days. There was an outdoor music fest in front so we spent an evening with the locals and all the bands and singing groups in the area, playing everything from Souza to Elvis and the Beatles.
Taken from our balcony. I wouldn’t mind having this cute house to spend part of the year in.
