Chamonix Travel Guide | Rhône-Alpes Part 1

In Part 1 of our Rhône-Alpes series, we’re starting in Chamonix, one of the most iconic mountain towns in the French Alps.

We talk about what Chamonix is really like beyond the photos, how the town feels when you’re walking through it and why it stands out compared to other mountain destinations we’ve visited. We cover the Mer du Glace glacier experience, the ice cave, hiking to Cascade du Dard, where we ate and where we stayed.

This episode is about slowing down, choosing the right experiences and letting a place like Chamonix set the pace instead of trying to do everything.

Next week in Part 2, we continue through the Rhône-Alpes with stops in Annecy, Aix-les-Bains and Chambéry.

Music: Seize the Day by Andrey Rossi via Uppbeat
License code: G7J4UDC0NAOFRJYL

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and welcome back. I'm Lisa. And I'm Erin. And this is the Getaways Podcast. So today, instead of doing just a city, we're going to do a whole region of France. And it's going to be a long one. So we're going to break it up into part one and part two. So here's part one. Good week, people. We are talking about one of my favorite regions of France today. Like, I guess I kind of love them all, but I really love this place. I like all of France, yes. But today we're going to talk about the Rhone Alps, which is like sort of on the southeastern area of France. It touches Italy. Yeah. So it's the Rhone River goes through there. The French Alps, obviously. That's where like Mont Blanc is on the French side. Just a very mountainous, very beautiful area of the country. It is. So we've been to okay, so we should say Lyon is part of this region, but we're not going to talk about that so much today because that deserves its own an entire segment.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I mean, entire episode from Lyon. It's a big city. And it was it was one of my first French cities after we moved to other than like Paris and stuff. And I really loved it. Yeah. And I really and I've been there, I went again by myself on the way to return my car. Uh-huh. But I definitely want to go back. Lyon has a fantastic food scene too that we'll have to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Yeah. All right. So we start with Chamonix. Yes. Start with start with our favorite or one of our favorites. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

So when we lived in Torino, it was easy to get to because it was just a straight shot kind of north northwest and through a very expensive tunnel. A very expensive tunnel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

That's something that you should know if you're driving through, if you're doing road trips through Europe, that going from Italy to Switzerland, the tunnels are like or France. Yeah, or France. It's the tunnels are like 60 euro. Like a lot. It can be very expensive. And they're lovely and safe and well maintained and all of that. But you know, that's a that's a hefty sum to go through a tunnel.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah. And our friends in Torino had an apartment in Cormaillere. Cormaillet? Cormaillet in Italy. And they all they'd like to go over to France to ski a lot, but it was so expensive. So they would take the gondolas up and then back and then into France instead of paying for the tunnel. Yeah, it's bananas.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah. But anyway, okay. So moving into Shaumani. So we've been there quite a few times. Quite a few times. Twice of like actual stays there and then a few day trips, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

No, I think we've stayed there three times because I think we stayed in that hotel twice. In the hell I think we stayed in the apartment once, and then we stayed in rooms once. If I if memory serves.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Okay. So the the first time we stayed in a hotel spa called the Heli Helipic? Hel Helip. Yep. Is that spelled right? So it's spelled right. Helopic. Heliopic. Yeah. Okay. But they had, it's a little bit on the outside of center of town, but they're really nice apartments that are fully have everything you could possibly need. Full kitchen. Full we had a two-bedroom. It also had an outdoor hot tub and a little like outdoor yardy kind of area.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah. It has a main hotel and then it had like a little like six.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Six apartments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Upstairs and downstairs. But yeah, it was it was really good.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Yeah. And super like had everything you needed for kids, had everything you needed for dogs. Breakfast buffet was great, like really nice indoor pool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

The hot tub out on the balcony was nice. We had room service. We ate room service there one night. We did. I think we stayed there twice two nights the first time because we went to the Fondue place, which we'll talk about. And then the second night, or we had some sort of room service because there was a salt and pepper fiasco. Do you remember this?

SPEAKER_02 3:59

I cooked that in there.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah. And and we didn't have salt and pepper, so we had him bring it. And for some reason, I just remember salt and pepper fiasco. Do you remember?

SPEAKER_02 4:08

No, I do not. Um, but the hotel's also right next to the cable car.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, that goes up to somewhere we never been.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Yeah, and it wasn't open actually when we were there.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Is it Glacier 3000 or is that in Switzerland? Or is it both? I think it's both. Yeah. It was the first time we were there, we just didn't do it. And then the second time when we stayed, I believe we stayed in that hotel because that's the time we went, like took Dylan to the skateboard park and everything. Do you remember all that? Was that Shamani?

SPEAKER_02 4:38

I don't remember skateboard park.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah, no, that's Shamini. It's on the other side of like that where the indoor pools are and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

So that was the second time we stayed there because we didn't, it wasn't winter. And we were gonna we were thinking about going up then, but I think it was really windy. And I have this really irrational fear of heights, and so I wouldn't have gone anyway.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

But yeah, we did go to okay, so let's just let's just start with should we start with food on that trip? Yeah. So you can't be in this region without having fondue. Like I think there's maybe laws prohibiting.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

There's definitely laws.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

So we walked down like just the street right down from the hotel and found this super cozy, really lovely little restaurant, and got really our first restaurant fondue, right? Wasn't it there? No, it was.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Yeah, it was called now. See, I would say le table, but there's a second E on it. So what do you think that means? Le Table? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

But it was, I mean, that's kind of what made me fall in love with it.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah. And we we so when we got to Shamini, we the first time we were in the hotel and Lisa walked around a little bit, and then we went to this dinner at this restaurant that was near the hotel. So I had no idea what was gonna open up once we went into Shamini. Right. But this dinner was it was it was the first time because I was like, oh my god, it's a bowl of potatoes. Yeah, oh my god, it's bread. It was like fondue. I just don't think it's done enough in America. Well, I think it's kind of weird because it was very popular like a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

In the 70s. Is it was it the 70s? Yeah, but and I feel like it's sort of fallen out of favor, but it's just so perfect because you're cold and it's mountainous around you and it's beautiful. And to just have this like cozy communal bowl of deliciousness is kind of perfect.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

But you really only want to have fondue with people that you really know because it is a lot of double dipping. Well, and a lot of germ sharing.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

And I had a lot, I had some issues I had to work through right after COVID in fondue, but I'm over it. I'm over it. So anyway, so we had a great meal then, and then we did discover the rest of Chamonix, which is I think one of the most picturesque places I've ever been. I mean, it is so fairy tale ski Alps village.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Exactly what you see in like the fairy tale Instagram post or movies are in your head when you think of mountain resort town in a Chamonix.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Because I swear there are so many times when I would be walking around and look up and go, oh yeah, we could totally be on a green screen situation right now on a movie set because it's it's so stunningly beautiful, it doesn't even look real. Like it's it's stupid.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

I will say Zermont is another place, and we'll talk about that, yeah, that is magical, but there's something different about Shamini because I feel like in Chamonix, and and maybe I just need to rethink about Zermont, but I feel like in Chamani, you are completely surrounded by mountains.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

That's what it feels like.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Like nowhere else I've ever been.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Well, and the architecture, I mean, it's very alpine. It is like very pointy roofs, very wood beams. Yeah, you know, it all just is very, you know, very suited to you know what you would see in a Disney movie. Yeah, it really is. So, and then like Aaron said, on the other side of the city, there's a huge big park area and a market and all kinds of yeah, in a giant indoor swimming complex.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah, an ice skating rink, I think. Yeah, there is and big skateboard park. And Dylan was he was still pretty young. He's probably like 10 or 11, but he was really into scootering, and so he took a scooter on that trip.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

So we had that was sort of our introduction, and we also did, which we did again on another trip with my sisters. So you can take this little cog train from the train station close to the center of Shamini, and you go up this mountain, and it takes you to the glacier. And I forgot.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

The mountain Monte Vere? Is that how you'd say it? Monte Vert, cogwheel train?

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Oh, okay. Yeah, the name of the train. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it takes you up to Mer de Glace, which is the glacier up there. Yes. And you can walk around. I mean, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

When you get there on the train, there is like kind of like I don't want to say a museum, but kind of a museum-y thing for the glacier where you can learn a lot about it. But then there's ice caves down below that are in the glacier. Now, to get to said ice caves, you either have to take this gondola that's not like a big gondola, it's one of those scary ones that shakes in the wind. It's not that scary. It's pretty scary. Or you have to walk down. So when we went the first time, did you and your sisters go in the ice cave? Oh, you did? Okay. So you take the the gondola down and then the ice cave, and we can talk about the ice cave, but didn't we walk back up because I didn't want to take the gondola back? We did, and it's a bit of a track, it's a trek. And for me to decide to ascend a mountain by walking versus any lazy way tells you that it was I was a bit scared going down. No, we didn't even go down, did we? We walked down.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

We walked down. Yeah. The the interesting thing about doing it that way, though, is that there are markers all the way along the stairs going up and down to the the caves that mark how much the glacier has changed and how much is melted. It's melted, yeah. And it is freaking crazy. Mind-blowingly sad. I mean, devastating to see just in even in our own lifetime, how much has disappeared and how much has melted and how much it's changed. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

It's crazy and weird since climate change doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

I don't understand it. But it is, it is really like breathtakingly beautiful and breathtakingly scary to see how much it has changed. But I mean, I think that some of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken are from the top where like the museum part and the gift shop is. I mean, it's it's really spectacular.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

And the ice caves are really nice, they're quite extensive.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

And there's it's cool because they also have like, you know, little carved-out areas and like little places where you can have a ice chair and and little sculptures and stuff. It's really, it's really they have that in Zermont, too.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Well, so we've been in three ice caves. And yeah, in three different glaciers. And three different glaciers. Do you have a favorite? And we haven't talked about two of the places we've been. Iceland and Zermont.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Well, I think Zermont's probably my favorite, but I do love I do love Shamani. And I and Shawani was first.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

I had a really hard time remembering Iceland because it was quite a while ago, but we did did we helicopter into that? No, we didn't. We didn't. We didn't.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

We just we we took a bus. But yeah, no, I mean there's there's just something like sort of frightening and beautiful, and it's just it's an experience that I think is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Like it is really cool, and it's something that if you get the chance, you should probably try to do because these glaciers are melting at a pretty fast rate, and they're not gonna be there. And it's something that everybody should see, I think, because it's really interesting and cool. And so, like that ice that we'd walked into had been there for millions of years.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah, no, it's crazy when you think about it like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

And as these things start melting, I mean, what are they gonna find there? Like dinosaurs? I don't know, cavemen, creepos?

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Okay, so other things in Shawani. There's great shopping, super cute shops all in the south. Oh, yeah. There's also like a little alpine coaster and little rides. Some of them are kind of crazy too. Do you remember like the one where you like launched yourself into a water on a thing? Yeah, and you pay for you put coins in, right? You pay per ride, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

I feel like I feel like in Shamini, it was one of the first places we went to a little park like that where I was like, oh, this is so different from America, because there's not like people monitoring you.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

There's not write-ops, no.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

No, you're like on a roller coaster and you pick when to go and there's no one saying slow down.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Well, yeah, that was the first place. I think that's the first alpine coaster Dylan and I did, right? Is it? Well, sometimes when we do, or whenever we did the first one, we were not in an English-speaking country, obviously. And so, like, you know, I didn't maybe read all the signs. And so Dylan was little, so he was riding with me, and we were going down, and I mean, we were like zooming. We were going really, really fast, and we were having a great time. And we get to the bottom, and Aaron goes, Oh, so did you you have to stop, you have to break before you turn? And I was like, Oh, you have to what? Excuse me, break? There's a break. Like, I had no idea. And then later I was better at it, but we had so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Where I don't do them very often because heights speed, not my thing. But I did one somewhere where was it in where was it? Was it like over in it? Must have been in in like the Dolomiti somewhere. Yeah. And I I I was on the brakes the whole time. I'm not, I'm not somebody that you want to go on a roller coaster with. But yeah, no, that park was great. That park is super fun. And the cogwheel train is right across the street from it. And there's like a little we didn't go in it, but there's like a little cogwheel museum there too.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Really great restaurants, too. We kind of keep going back to the same place, which is called Josephine. Oh gosh, I could go there right now. Adorable. They have great food. We never not get the onion soup, which is delicious.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Just a tip for all my friends in America. French onion soup, not called French onion soup in France, apparently.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

But but that is delicious there.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Oh, it's the best onion soup ever. Yeah. And there's a really good candy store. I don't know what it's called, but right across from it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

I mean, there's just all the shops are very like mom and poppy and you know, just a really fun place to walk around. Great place, you know, if you're there before Christmas to, you know, do some Christmas shopping and things that you wouldn't find anywhere else. Which brings us to the next time we were there when we stayed on Airbnb.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Oh, yeah. Okay. Which we came with my sisters and we stayed right in city center in this, like a castle is a castle that was decided as an apartment.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah, it was a very, very big house. And I guess I didn't even realize it when I rented it, but we all had our own. Well, my sisters are twins, so they stayed in the same room, but they had their own bathroom, two like big, a big, huge room with two big beds, and then we had our own rooms with our own bathrooms attached. And I didn't have my own bathroom. Okay. Huge living area. Huge.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

The kitchen wasn't huge, but huge living area with the most beautiful, comfortable leather sofas and a fire. Like it was it was like a mountain cabin, but in an apartment, and it was yeah, with a big patio that kind of terraced. So because we were on the second floor or the first floor, so we overlooked the street, but the terrace was like there was six feet of snow.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Yeah, and Rex was like coming out of his mind because he was so happy to jump in it. But yeah, we had a it was like perfect, and we were very, very lucky because that's not a city that has a ton of Airbnbs, and we've looked before and after for some place that was affordable and could accommodate what we needed, and they are not easy to find. So if you are going there, and the same thing with Anise, which we'll talk about in a minute, oh yeah, the Airbnbs in the area are just not are not easy to come by. So you've got to start your search early and be really, really like comprehensive in your search if that's what you need, because there there aren't very many and they tend to be a little bit on the pricey side.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

As as hotels as well, because there's not a ton of hotels in either of these places. I mean, in Honisse, you can get some cheaper ones, but Shamini, you they're really all pretty we stayed in a dump in Honisse.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

It was a dump.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

That's why I mean you can get some cheaper ones.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

But it still wasn't like I mean, it was still more than 150.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

It's probably like 150 a night, but it was a dump and it was disgusting. Yeah, no, it wasn't even clean. No. Um God, and it was like a brand like a hotel chain, wasn't it? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to go write a review.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Okay, anything else about shaman and the case? Yeah, I've got a few facts. Oh, and we gotta talk about the the hike.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Oh, we gotta talk about the hike, and I've got some facts. So let's do the hike first. It was the first time we went, right, wasn't it? Yeah, I don't remember which one it was, but it wasn't when we went in the winter.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Oh, yeah, well, yeah. So we did this hike that kind of starts off by the street and meanders through like the rocks and the forest and the woods and climbs all the way up and it ends with this like beautiful waterfall.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

It's called the Cas Cascade.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Dard. Yeah, and then up there there's this outdoor. I guess they have an indoor area too, but it's outdoor cafe.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

That's all like it's a wood cabin.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Well, and like the the with the wood deck. No, the deck is all wood, and then it faces the waterfall. So you can sit there and have a glass of wine and eat some cheese and have some onion soup and watch the magical the 40-minute hike out of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

I don't know how they get the food up there.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Well, there has to be a way to come down from the top.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, I guess. It it is super magical.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, yeah. It's a really it's a really nice time if you're there at the right time of year and the weather is good for you. That's that's a high recommend.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Somebody may have gotten food poisoning.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yeah, I didn't feel so hot after I had the cheese, but you know, that's not that uncommon for me. I'm kind of a delicate flower, and you probably gathered that.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

All right, I've got some facts. A Chamonix, first place I ever bought a bottle of runeur. Okay. With his little jacket. Remember that? Did you already say that Mare de Glace is the largest glacier in France? I did not. So it's the largest glacier in France. The Monte Verse train has been running since 1909. And the ice cave, all right, this is interesting, is rebuilt every year because the glacier is constantly moving and melting. I didn't know that. How far do you think? I have no idea. I'm sure they must use existing, I'd have to do some research, but they probably have to build more, like tunnel it out more every year because of the melting and moving.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

But yeah, it's rebuilt every year. All right. So thank you very much, Shamani. We love you, Shamani. And thanks for listening. Check out the website www.thegetawayswithaz.com. And we'll see. Next time, yeah.