Une Bonne Chance

and what is was, as it led us, dear travelers, to lunching in Chamonix-Mont Blanc. As with most happenstance events, this was certainly a highlight, as we hadn't planned on doing this trip and decided on a whim.

Basically it is a standard train journey, however from Martigny to Chamonix-Mont Blanc (CMB), you travel on a cog trailway up and along a wooded ravine/gorge including some amazing waterfalls and mountain scenery. Similar to the trip up to the Zugspitze, and unlike the Gornergrat, the Bernina and Glacier expresses, and the Golden pass trips, it wasn't that apparent that it would be this type of trip. Yes it was with commentary at different points across the loud speaker, however some of this was missed as it is used by the locals to get up the mountain with kids. dogs, elderly parents - the works - to do who know what, other than it was a beautiful day for a walk down through the forest and even forging for berries.  

One stop was a small village patronized by the English up until WWI for summer hols, oh yes we are back in France where such things mattered, since then until a resurgence as youth hostel type accommodation it was in a full decline. I wonder it is would've been better suited for Wagner  than Luzern, but probably too remote for his 'tastes'.

There was one British tour group on the train - The Mount Blanc Express (not that it was any kind of express) with a very bewildered tour guide who asked me as we changed from one train to another, if I knew this station well! Well there was only one platform and you literally got off one  train and got on the other, and anyhow as in Rome - I followed the locals.  I do hope she survived the trip and returned to the UK with the same people she left with.

CMB is as expected, a mountain holiday spot and as it is not full season it was relatively quiet, thanks to that and that most of it is car free. It didn't have the busyness of Zermatt which is also car free and as it wasn't full season the cog train up to the glacier and the cable car didn't appear to be working as everything was getting their preseason overhaul. So what else was there to do but to sit in the sun, enjoying Le Plat de Jour with a glass of wine. CMB has replaced Zermatt as my favorite alpine village. Also as, I have said, it is not full season  and as the train line from CMB to Annemasse, as I abhor going back the way I have come, was also getting its preseason check we utilized the replacement bus service, especially as it appeared in the Eurail App and we we trundled quite happily down the valley back into civilization, The operating cog train was on the most spectacular side so nothing was lost by this and we got to view a number of village railway stations. Mild panic while waiting for the bus occurred, when a school trip turned up, as well where would we all fit, and if there is one thing that is universal on the planet it is school trips. So another round trip completed.

Not CMB 
























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