Day Trip to Chamonix (Nov 5, 2025)

We left a town that is in the foothills of the Alps to see a town that is right up against them--Chamonix.  Officially Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, it's a resort town of just over 8600 people that hosted the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924.

While I prefer to take trains, the bus trips to Chamonix were much cheaper so that's what we decided to use--a BlaBlaCar Bus.  It was a 104 km (64.6 mi) trip and it took about 1.5 hours.  Luckily, the bus was pretty comfortable.  The bus dropped us off on the outskirts of town and we walked to the center.

Saint Michel Church

Fe and I with the mountains

Buildings and the mountains.  You can see the ski lift on the right.  Spoiler alert: it was closed, so we couldn't use it.

Looking downstream over the Arve River

Statue of Horace Bénédict de Saussure, founder of alpinism and modern meteorology.

Looking downstream

View from Place Saussure

Wooden Bridge over the Arve

Love locks

Fe in the town square

Chamonix Protestant Church

Inside the church.  Another ceiling that looks like a ship's hull.

Back of the church and cemetery

Inside Josephine Restaurant

Cappuccino

Nutella crepe for lunch

Town view from another bridge

Whoever lives in the apartments on the other side of these buildings has a great view.

Even though we took a bus, I like to get railroad station pics.

Train in the station

Fe in an old cable car.  The cable car was not running when we were there and neither was the cog railway to the glacier.  It wasn't ski season yet, and I noticed  few other things were closed.  I guess this is when they get a vacation.

After seeing all this, it was time to head back to our bus pickup.  We got there in plenty of time, but when our bus pulled in I knew there was an issue since the driver opened the engine door and was on the phone for a while.  Turns out it was leaking oil and the company was sending a replacement bus which got there about an hour (maybe a bit more that that) later.  I'm glad we had another full day in Annecy scheduled--about half of our original riders made alternate arrangements.  It was all good though, we met and talked with a Filipino group and the replacement bus was newer and more comfortable.  We got back to our hotel around 6:30 pm.  Better than being stuck on the highway in the mountains if the engine blew.  I think they made a movie about that.