The main reason we wanted to visit Chamonix was to visit the top of Mont Blanc. We had booked the trip a year in advance and so didn’t know whether we’d be blessed with good weather or not. We had also purchased a 4 day Mont Blanc Family Multipass so we had access to all the lifts costing €320.

First cable cars up Mont Blanc

The forecast was for clear skies and full sun so we reserved tickets for one of the early cable cars up. We arrived at the cable car station at 6.45am and it was already very busy (but as we had timed tickets we went straight through). The first cable car takes you to Plan de l’Aiguille at 2,317m and provides beautiful views of Chamonix below.

It is then necessary to take a second cable car to the top of Aiguille du Midi. On this journey the snow appears and you are travelling up a cliff face.

At the top our legs felt like jelly and we assumed it was due to the vibrations of the cars. However, we quickly realised it was the altitude. We had never been at 3,842 metres and even climbing a flight of stairs felt difficult. Within ten minutes we all had niggling headaches and slight dizziness – didn’t stop us though!

The views from the platform were incredible, white snow and blue skies. You could see climbers camping on the snow and people already making the ascent. Despite temperatures being below freezing the sun was so strong it actually felt quite warm

^{Views from the top of the top of Aiguille du Midi.}

We were very tempted to buy tickets for the Mont Blanc Panoramic and cross into Italy but at over €300 for the family we couldn’t really justify it.

After an hour or so we decided to head back down. The beauty of being one of the first people up (and we are not known to hang around at places) is that you almost get a cable car to yourself on the return and there is no queuing.

We decided to go for a little walk at Plan de l’Aiguille, eat our lunch (it was, after all about 9am) and watch the cable cars before returning to Chamonix and heading off to Glace de Mer for the afternoon.

^{Not a bad spot for lunch!}

An Afternoon at Mer de Glace

Mer de Glace is the largest Glacier in France and to get there you take a funicular train from Chamonix (all included in our multi pass ticket). The train ride is about 20 minutes and takes you up the side of a mountain to the Glacier. The kids really enjoyed the ride as we could see where we were staying and it was quite nice to sit and chill.

We disembarked the train and took a cable car down to the Glacier. From here it was about a 15 minute downhill walk to the entrance of the Glacier

You can actually go inside the Glacier which was really cool. There are some ice sculptures of animals, ice chairs to sit on and lots of information. It was the first time we’d been in a Glacier – it was so blue! Kids absolutely loved it and I would definitely recommend visiting. Although the walk back up hill to train in over 30 degrees heat was hard work!

^{Inside the glacier}

We were back home by about 3pm which gave us plenty of time to play in the pool.