Impressions of Chamonix (France)

My Significant Other is a bit of a sports addict (then again, aren't most men?), especially when it comes to running marathons. Ages ago, he signed up to run the Mont Blanc marathon, which is how we found ourselves in Chamonix this past weekend. In a way, I was really glad to not be in Paris during the first sales weekend... if the Wednesday was bad, the Saturday is usually the ultimate shopping madness, as you'll get people traveling from neighboring European countries who want in on the fun.

View of Mont Blanc from the hotel room.

Chamonix is a beautiful alpine resort in France, bordering on Switzerland and Italy and conveniently located at the foot of Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest mountain. The closest city is in Geneva and though we drove through it, I unfortunately didn't get to spend any time there. Not really an issue - I've never seen Mont Blanc and wanted to spend some quality time away from any city. Unlike other ski resorts, especially the glitzy Swiss ones (yes St. Moritz... I'm looking at you), Chamonix is surprisingly unpretentious. I'm sure during the winter seasons you'll get a few ski bunnies in designer sports gear, but judging from the stores I saw, this place is pretty down-to-earth and not as overly filled with chalet-kitsch as many of it's counterparts.

Downtown Chamonix & starting point for the marathon.

During the summer months the area is really popular among rock climbers, hikers and extreme sports fans - there were so many paragliders out this weekend. I would have been tempted to try it out if we had had more time.

Chamonix

Partial view of Mont Blanc from Chamonix.

As you can imagine, shopping isn't really a main attraction here, which is why I'm not going to do any store profiles. But since the main downtown area consists of nothing but stores (mainly outdoor and sports shops) and restaurants, I couldn't help snapping a few pics...

Left: Boutique with a range of Gerard Darel, Ralph Lauren etc., Right: A more common sight were the large number of outdoor shops. Here: The North Face.

You won't starve in Chamonix. One of the many delicatessen stores.

An art gallery sold some amazing photographs of Mont Blanc. The below image was my favorite.

Not the best place to find shoes... unless you like Birkenstocks (left), which I can still tolerate... or that other brand (right), which I would prefer not to name.

... because every town deserves some Karl. Surrounded by outdoor shops, I found the only designer flagship in Chamonix. And they had sales as well!

We also managed to browse the weekly market...

Overview of the market

More outdoor clothing... but cheap (left). You can't escape the harem trousers... (right)

Left: These flowers were made of wood and paper. Right: Colorful jewelry.

Top left: A range of artisanal honeys. Top right: Sausages made of donkey and wild boar. Bottom: A nice selection of wild mushrooms.

On Sunday, my dearest and well over 14 000 other crazies set out to run/walk/crawl up this part of Mont Blanc, starting at 7AM in the morning. I chose an easier way... around noon...

No way am I walking up that...

The destination from inside the cable car.

View of Chamonix from the cable car.

View of the rest of Mont Blanc from the top.

Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend!