Monday, July 4, 2016

Mon voyage. Jour numéro dix. Chamonix.

Kimmie took me all the way to her friends' house (Tom and Soph) in Servoz where I will be spending the next two nights.  Servoz is just a 30 minute train ride from Chamonix, where I will do a little Alp exploration (not gravestone-earning-Alp-exploration...)

Built in 1537, Servoz has the oldest church in the Chamonix Valley.
Servoz is cute.  There are 1,000 inhabitants in an area of 13.5 square km.  It is much less populated than the oh so popular Chamonix, and it offers 360° mountain views.

This is the view from their front yard (don't mind Rufus).

After Kimmie went home I spend the afternoon exploring Chamonix, so I knew were to get the téléphérique tomorrow, where to get the bus the following day, and where to buy ice cream.


Today I got tarte citron meringue (it had chunks of crunchy meringue).  Yep... delicious.

The rivers that come from the Alps are grey/white in color.  This isn't where Evian water comes from, the source of Evian water is the alps but it is naturally filtered through clay as it makes its way back to Lac Léman.

Edward Whymper was the first to climb the Matterhorn (a crew of seven turned into a crew of three upon their descent).  Whymper was the most famous/ most controversial of the three survivors (some people think the deaths are suspicious).  He died at age 71 in Chamonix, from falling... ill after hiking the alps.


Kids and teens dying in the Alps is not uncommon.  The Alps are dangerous, or can be if you are not trained, not equipped, don't heed warnings, or sometimes if you just have bad timing.  There are an average of one hundred deaths per year here, near Mont Blanc, that is more than Denali has in a decade.

Glacier de Bossons looks like it is going to surge down the hill into Chamonix at any minute. 
It is massive (7.5 km long).   


1 comment:

  1. How wonderful of Kimmie and her friends. It just shows how loved you are Brady! What a great town to explore from.

    I didn't like this "There are an average of one hundred deaths per year here, near Mont Blanc, that is more than Denali has in a decade." Be careful friend!

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