God is good!

When we got in the car to head to the French Alps, it was cold, dark, ominous and raining.  Great.  The main reason that we were going to Chamonix is that it is the gateway to a gondola ride up to an elevation of 12,600 feet with views of Mont Blanc and the mountain range that surrounds it, which is known bring people to their knees.  (That and the high altitude!)

My trusted guide book tells me that weather in Chamonix is "everything."  Super.  In bad weather, the gondolas will not run.  In bad weather, you won't even see the mountains.  The entire 2 plus hour drive there, I felt as if we were driving deeper and deeper into clouds that appeared to get darker at every turn.  There was no patchy blue sky.  No white fluffy clouds.  No way.  Most of that car ride for me was spent with my head bent in prayer, or deep in my guide book, looking at any of the "rainy day options."  I was fervently working on my case of "these options might even be better than the gondola ride up the mountain!"

When we had reached the outskirts of the Chamonix region, at the base of the French Alps I squinted while looking down.  What was that?  Lightening?  No!  It was a break in the clouds!  Unbelievable!  And when the clouds parted, they revealed mountains so large and beautiful that it took our breath away.  Jeff pulled over at the first opportunity that he could,  just so that we could get out and appreciate how beautiful this view was!

With ominous looking clouds still looming, we just were not sure if we would get another opportunity for this extraordinary view.  All (and I mean ALL) weather forecasts showed us having rain for 2 full days.  Do you know how when you check the weather on weather.com, it shows a little picture of what the weather will look like?  Well those pictures were all clouds (no sun peeking out) and lots of rain.  So, we had good reason to jump at every opportunity that we had to see the mountains.

As we sailed into Chamonix, the clouds seemed to open up and push back.  I kept thinking to myself, "God is good!" and "At least he gave us a view of what we might want to come back to some day!"  We could still see the ominous threatening clouds ahead and to the left, but to the right it appeared to be clearing!  I saw a sign for "Aiguille du Midi."  "That's it!  Pull in, and let's see if it is running!"  If we were going to have any chance of getting up the mountain this might be it!

We walked right up to the ticket window, through rows and rows of lines like you would see at Disneyland.  From what I have read, these lines are usually filled with people waiting to buy tickets to get up to the mountain.  Pant pant.  "Can we get 5 tickets to go up to Aiguille du Midi?"  (In French of course) "Yes.  The next gondola leaves in about 15 minutes!  Now is good because the weather is turning."  We were so excited!  We ran back to the car to get on all of the proper gear.  The tennis shoes that we would not be caught dead in walking through town, the rain jackets that we had packed because the temperatures can drop to 30 degrees in the summer at the top of the mountain (not to mention the rain), water, and the backpack with extra sweatshirts.

We got on the gondola, and as we wizzed up to an alpine heaven, and the town of Chamonix continued to shrink, I think we all started to think...God is good!  12,600 feet was a thrilling ride!  Up at the top we were literally going almost vertical against the sheer rock of the mountain.  Looking down...well, someone who does not like heights would likely pass out.  Someone who does not mind heights is best described is getting a case of the "willies."  Yikes.  It was a long way down.

The evergreen trees that we "wizzed" by going up the mountain

The view of the town as we approached the top!

They say that if you can get up to the top of the mountain, and the weather is clear, then the price of the ticket doesn't matter.  That could not be more true!  The view that we were afforded once at the top, was one that I have never ever come close to having seen before.  It was breathtaking!  The bright blue sky and the puffy white clouds were back!  Mont Blanc, and the mountain range surrounding it were in full view and we were in awe.  Craggy rocks, white mountain tops, crystal white snow, a whitish/blusish glacier...we felt as if we could almost touch heavan!

At 12,600 feet altitude we were forced to sit down a few times, drink water and just take it all in.  Hurt me.  :)  There were several different mountaintop lookouts, and we went to them all.  At the highest point, there was a little cafe.  In our haste, we had left all of our food in the car except for some nuts.  You should have seen Rachel and Soren's face when we told them about this little healthy "mountain" snack.  Within 10 seconds, we were in line buying a sandwich, a wrap and a Toberlone bar.  So, there we were. We had made it up to the top, seen the heavenly view and now we were having a little picnic on top of the world!

Part of the glacier

Mont Blanc is the farthest mountain to the right

Jeff on top of the world!

How often do you get to walk through an ice tunnel?

The clouds pressing in from the opposite side!  Eeek!  

The clouds were still in the distance, and were pressing in.  So, we went down the gondola to the half way point and there we hiked around a bit.  It was quite different from the top, but we enjoyed it still.  Now, the rain arrived and we had to get down.  We got down to the base of the mountain no problem and went to our hotel.  From the room that we had there, we could see the base of the mountains covered in evergreen trees and topped in the clouds that we had seen in the distance all day.

At a meadow at the half way point down the mountain!

Since we were on the border of Switzerland, we felt it appropriate to have fondue for dinner.  By this time, it was pouring rain and the warm comfort food could not have tasted better!  After dinner, we went back to the room (the rain stopped as we walked the 3 or 4 blocks to our car) and hunkered down.  I took a bath while looking out the window to the French Alps and listened to the pouring rain.  It was another little slice of heaven.

It rained most of the night, and the next morning.  No problem!  We had seen what we had come to Chamonix for.

The next day, we decided that we should go to Italy.  I mean, the kids had been craving pizza and where better to go?  So, we were off.  25 minutes later (20 of which were spent in the tunnel under Mont Blanc) we were in Italy!  Again, the sun came out and shone gloriously on the back side of the French Alps!  Do they still call them that in Italy?  I have no idea!

We drove through mountain villages to a little town called Aosta.  It was a quaint town, with narrow, cobblestoned streets, and lots of pizzarias!  We had 3 different kinds of pizza and a bottle of Pellagrino.  We all agreed that it was the best pizza that we have ever had!  (The kids did not love the Pellagrino)  I think that our favorite was the margarita pizza.  Mouthwatering!

The back side of the French Alps

Italy...and the sun!

Aosta

Viva Italia!

Arivaderchi!  Ciou!















On our way back to France, we strangely felt as if we were going home.  The sun was out, the mountains were in full and pristine view, and the waterfalls were flowing vigourously!  The views kept us pulling off of the highway for yet one more picture.  Absolutely beautiful!

Back in France we decided to have a picnic dinner at a little "postcard town" called Annecy.  It is actually quite a large city, but claims to be France's answer to Switzerland's Lucerne.  The lake there was the clearest that I have seen since Lucerne.  It was so clean and aquamarine blue, that you could see strait to the bottom!  We ate our French dinner (leftover pizza, bread, salami, brie and nectarines) on a large grassy park area while watching people play what we think was Frisbee golf behind us, large groups of people rollerblading, biking and walking in front of us, and the blue lake with mountains as a backdrop.  Ahhhh.  What a great ending to our two days!

Kids taking a walk (wishing that we had a bike) at Le Lac at Annecy

Le Lac at Annecy and the French Alps...ahhhh!

It was now 9 pm (but looks like 4 with the sun).  We had almost 400 pictures on our camera, run out of battery on the video camera, and no clean clothes left.  Time to go home.  We stopped at a rest stop to get a nice cup of to go coffee (about the only place that you can get to go coffee) and headed home.  We rolled in at about 12:20 am.  As I fell asleep that night, all I could do is think "God is good!"