Chamonix Mont-Blanc is in the French Alps. When my wife and I went to France in 1995, we wanted to see the Alps. I looked in books and had almost settled on going to Grenoble. I had a friend in France who convinced me that if I wanted to see the Alps, I should see the "real" Alps. He told me exactly how to arrange a trip to Chamonix. What a treat. I would have to say it was the highlight of a great trip. We took a sleeper train that left Gare D'Austerlitz at about midnight. We slept in a small berth with 4 total strangers. Two changes later and we were in Chamonix. I have some pictures from the trip below. We took the TGV back to Paris.

	With no reservation, we found this hotel. We had a great view of the Alps out the window. I think we were the only people there without ski equipment.
	There is a cable car ride up to the Aiguille du Midi. It's 3852meters straight up the mountain. We chickened out and took the cable car to Le Brevent. It was "only" 2525 meters up. Below are the pictures we took from the top. It looks like we took the pictures from an airplane. I rode the cable car looking at the floor because I was scared to death! We were the only ones without ski equipment here too.
Above - My wife is standing on some steps at the top of Le Brevent. That's the town down below. We were hoping the stairs were sturdy. Below - There's the town from the very top of the mountain. We both had to have a drink before we could start back down.	Above - The cable car structure at the top of Le Brevent Below - looking down at the cable car from the structure in the picture above. You can barely see the cable car. There's no way to see where it came from!!!!!