Meters Are Longer Than Feet

Bonjour from Chamonix, France. Right now, Pierre (my husband's French name that has been decided to protect his privacy while across the Atlantic Ocean) and I are sitting in bed, digesting a dinner of salad, tartiflette (basically a huge pan of potatoes au gratin with ham), a couple loaves of bread (I swear, France is going to have a new Bastille Day where all my waiters are going to celebrate the liberation of me saying, "Um, can I get a little more bread?" - and then followed up with a lame, "merci.") and some delightful crepes. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy crepes? No? Um, zey are fantastic. (Said with a horrible French accent)

So, outside of the exciting game of US vs. Slovenia (okay, I'll admit, I was sort of into the game. We have a foot by foot TV, so I ask you, how could anyone NOT get into a sporting match of any kind with this type of entertainment magnet?) Anyway, like I was saying, outside of the World Cup, today was awesome. We decided to venture up into the mountains and take a gondola up to Aguilli du Midi, which is the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world, from 1,035 m to 3,842 m. Yeah, meters. (I thought it was feet at first, so I said to Pierre, "Why is this such a big deal?" - I'm a stupid American.) Anyway, the ride up was incredible. After a few minutes we were above the clouds and could see gorgeous peaks sticking out, like Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps. Again, I can't do justice to what we saw - pictures will be coming.

After an hour of hanging out at the different observation points, the clouds rolled in and we decided to travel down to Plan Aiguille du Midi, which is the first stop the gondola makes from the top (about 2300 meters up) and hike down. Again, very cool - the only drawback was my old woman knees were dying. These "switchbacks" weren't exactly back and forth, but more like straight down. Anyway, it was worth it. Every once in awhile the clouds would pass and we could see the entire town of Chamonix below, or we would see an awesome waterfall flowing from above. Absolutely gorgeous!

Well, it's time for bed. Tomorrow we'll spend the morning eating more croissants and baguettes (because that's what we do) and then head to Lyon. Night.