chamonix

So a couple of friends of mine were going to Chamonix the week before I was headed down to Italy to visit my friend Dan. By some miracle of my ever evolving school schedule, I was able to go without too much damage to my class attendance record. That and I found an overnight train ticket for 40 euros.

It was my first overnight train and I didn’t know exactly what to expect except that for 40 euros you get a seat that “reclines”. In my mind I picture the reclining seats on airplanes that go back about 5 degrees. Which could be trouble since I have a hard time falling asleep sitting up and my plan of getting in more than one day on the slopes of Chamonix hinged on my getting a decent night sleep.

Fortunately the seats actually recline back like 35 degrees and there’s a foot petal that lifts your feet up as well (think Joey and Chandler’s recliner chair from Friends) so I was able to sleep ok. That and nobody in my car snored which was pretty damn lucky given the train was completely full.

Anywho I arrived in St Gervais at 9 the next day where enjoyed the view that accompanied my 6 dollar cup of coffee while I waited for my train transfer.

Arrived in Chamonix around 11 (after, I might add, a beautiful train ride up the mountain with powder so fresh and untouched it reminded me of the Claymation of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas Special).

Headed to my friend’s apartment and before setting out the meet them decided to have lunch first.

Big mistake. Why? Because when I finally made my way to the snowboard rental place they were closed for lunch. For three hours.

Kicking myself for having should’ve known better and making such a rookie “living in France” mistake, I fortunately saw a dude smoking across the street in what looked like another rental place. I asked him if he could rent me some gear and he agreed. I chatted with him for a bit and turns out he’s originally from… wait for it. Rouen, France. Through this connection I managed to get myself a 3 euro discount.

By this time it was around 1:30 and I still had to find my way to the gondola, buy a lift ticket, and get up the mountain before everyone got tired and wanted to go back to the apartment. I hauled ass wearing my snowboarding boots and carrying my snowboard up what was an unfortunately super steep and super slippery hill to get to the gondola. It was not pleasant. But the gondola ride was.

I finally made it up, found my friends, and commenced sucking at snowboarding. The weather was pretty crap however and visibility was almost zero and there was talk about going back to the apartment which really sucked for me because of all my effort to getting up there.
And then it started to clear up and it was gorgeous. J’etais tres content.