Santa doesn't do things by half in our little village!
Arriving by horse and carriage and departing by hot air balloon. What style! And to top it off, our Santa could ski! After alighting from the balloon at the top of beginner's slope he went for a ski with all the children. How good is that? Actually we loved it too!! Although the we skipped the skiing part as it was a little fraught with 100's of small children, concerned parents (some on skis and some not) and all manner of dogs madly dashing about to add to the general chaos. Poor old Santa!!
Since the weather is truly stunning at the moment, we took the opportunity to duck over to Chamonix and take the spectacular cable car up to the Aiguille Du Midi. Words really can't describe the views from the top. The whole structure is an engineering marvel! It is perched like a space age eyrie on a granite pinnacle at 3842m. To the north, Mont Blanc towers above everything at 4810m. And below, the famous Glacier Du Geant, Vallee Blanche winds its way down the valley.
While we mere mortals wandered the ramparts, protected by strong safety barriers, a procession of mountaineers nonchalantly climbed up from below or along knife edge ridgelines and casually swung themselves over the barriers to re-enter civilisation. A few skiers too, were making their way along the roped ridgeline to begin their route down the Vallee Blanche. Hopefully this will be us a bit later in the season!
We spent most of the afternoon, wandering through this amazing structure and gazing out onto the incredible mountain vista. No wonder Chamonix is considered a climbing mecca!
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