Prior to this trip, I'll admit, I only knew of Mont Blanc as the company often found in the duty-free shops in airport thoroughfares.
Alex and I embarked on a roadtrip from Nice to Chamonix, a town at the base of Mont Blanc, Europe's tallest mountain nestled in the French Alps. We Tetris'd our bikes into the boot, popped on a French-inspired playlist, and climbed into the car. I promptly passed out in the passenger seat mere minutes after the departure. I awoke to a distant, towering mountain-scape that looked like the green screen depictions of Oz. Too picturesque to be real.
Seeing the mountain reminded me of my mystification as child when my mom responded to me in repose on a picnic blanket, no, we could not simply ride the elevator in the nearest sky scraper to touch the clouds. They were, as Mont Blanc was, further than my mind could comprehend.
Days later, Alex and I had a 5AM date with Mont Blanc herself. Riding the gondola up in our warmest clothes, which seemed ridiculous from the temperate ground level (gloves and a beanie in summer??), our ears popped repeatedly as the pressure changed on our ascent. Both of us donned our cycling leg warmers beneath our clothes with the promise (threat?) of glacial temperatures at the [almost] summit.
Despite the snow, the sun maintained a stolid aptitude for warming us as we disembarked. Alex, having a background in glacial studies, pointed out the arêtes, cirques, and explained that the sharp, rigid peaks were an indicator of the young age of the mountains before us. The sharper the peak, the more recently the mountain was formed.
I had briefly worried that seeing Mont Blanc up close would steal her valor, what a glib notion. That afternoon, I found myself tentatively looking to the ground as I rounded the corners within the city, ripe with anticipation for the moment I'd turn my eyes up to regard her.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for letting me share this with you. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share with a friend.
-C
I love that you revived this to share these beautiful pics with us!