Chamonix III, (The Aiguille du Midi)
Tuesday 160903: I woke up at 5.20am with the even worse than usual scrutiating backache. (Scrutiating - where does that come from? Alice in Wonderland perhaps?).
In these colder areas we generally slept underneath a thin duvet and with our very good sleeping bags, unzipped to the maximum, i.e. 3/4, and spread out on top of the duvet.
You can't really get out of a sliding door quietly, but I tried to, carrying my sleeping bag with me.
Inside the awning I tried to sleep in a chair.
And then I tried to sleep lying on the groundsheet.
It was cold, but I dozed a bit.
At 7.30am I crept back into the van and slept 'til 9.30am.
We didn't have breakfast 'til 11.30am, then walked down the riverside past the whitewater rafting place and into the centre of Chamonix.
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It was hot. Thin white cloud was clearing from around the top of Mont Blanc. The Aiguille, (Needle) du Midi is so called because at midday, (at the right time of year), its shadow strikes down into the square in the middle of the town. Where there's a handsome stone pillar. With a hole in it.
Through which I took this photograph! And I thought, I must remember to pick up my sunglasses. I caught up with Jo in a rather good shop. |
We bought some incense, an excellent and inexpensive joss stick box and burner, and a poster of an old advertisment.
Then I remembered the sunglasses.
15mins had gone by and so had the glasses.
I'd had them for one year and nine days.
They were very good ones.
| Chamonix's a good town to stroll around. Expensive shops
though, and mainly modern buildings. My sister had lent us the Lonely Planet Guide
to France in which I'd read about a restaurant doing plenty of veggie
options.
We found it and agreed we'd come back later. We noticed a bar called The Cybar. It was closed, but a sign said it stayed open until 4am. For all its usefulness I might as well have gone to a dairy, but in a chemists I bought some cream for my backache. It reduced the pain not one bit, (but very nearly set my skin on fire).
After a lazy late afternoon back "home", we walked the 20mins back into Chamonix. The ambience had changed. In the pedestrianised centre people were simply strolling, or posing, or sitting inside or outside bars and cafes. They were mainly working blokes, or serious mountain adventure seekers. The shoppers and conventional tourists had presumably gone back to their homes, or hotels. We were the first customers of the evening at the excellent Annapurna restaurant. |
L'Aiguille du Midi. An innate lack of modesty allows me to point out that this is a bloody good photograph. |
The Asian-looking waiter had a totally English accent. After a Ricard, (do you remember when all the boy-racers had CIRCUIT PAUL RICARD printed on their stuck-on blue sunvisors?), and part way through a bottle of Tiger beer, I asked the waiter what was the significance of a chain of 4 brass capital letters reading "MERC".
He laughed and pointed out a 5th letter which had turned slightly sideways.
It was an "I".
Soon a French dude and, (surely it was), his "mistress" were seated at another table.
Aussies and more Brits came in.
Two outdoor chaps (Brits and somewhat stoned), and a very plain, outdoor activities-type woman sat at the table next to us and talked endlessly about Annapurna, Himalayan peaks and Alpine peaks as if they really had nothing much in common, or were showing off.
Or they were simply desperate not to be not talking.
Eventually they shut up.
Jo didn't much enjoy the wooded riverside walk back to the campsite in the dark, but lights were on at the Aiguille du Midi and a floodlight shone right across the valley onto Le Brevent opposite.
Amongst the stars the mountain top really did seem to be floating.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
AIGUILLE DU MIDI
Wednesday 170903: The van had had a day off and as we left the campsite I noticed that the gear linkage felt quite gritty. There was plenty of oil outside the gearbox. We'd used no engine oil at all.
Anyway, it was a travelling day, but first there was something I had to do.
Wow, did I shoot some film on this day! And loads of video too.
The "something" involved leaving Jo in the car park while I went up a mountain - the easy way and snapping away like mad. Well, not so mad perhaps? Although it involved minimal effort, this was a massive adventure and, for me, pretty certainly a one-off.
Le Brevent above here, the town of Chamonix and some of the fabulous mountains of Haute Savoie.
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In a cable-car fairly full of lazy tourists like me, I was heading for that pointy thing, the "needle" on the Aiguille du Midi.