Chamonix, July 1st
I forgot to mention yesterday that we met a very elderly lady on the train to Grenoble who had never heard of Texas! She had heard of New York, but not Texas. I tried everything.....cowboys, guns, horses, but she just kept saying "je ne connais pas" (I'm not familiar with it). I should have said "George Bush"!
According to Rick Steves, we needed to get up early to go to Chamonix if we wanted to ride the lift to the top of the mountain to view Mont Blanc. So we did.....we left Annecy around 7:30 a.m.
It is about 50 miles to Chamonix, and about 20 miles out Mont Blanc popped into view. It was absolutely magnificent! We arrived in the town (compared to Aspen in the USA) surrounded by mountains, most of them still covered with snow in July! We bought our tickets (38 Euros each) to go to the top of Aiguille du Midi on a really scary-looking lift. We got halfway up and then had to change to another one. It took about 20 minutes to get to the top, where we were surrounded by absolutely beautiful snow-covered mountains. We took pictures. We asked some Japanese tourists to take our picture, and then they wanted to have a picture made with us, but they wanted to switch spouses! I was with the Japansese man, and Mark was with his wife! It was pretty funny, but unfortunately we didn't get a copy of that picture!
Mark had a coffee on top of the mountain for 3 euros (his habit is very expensive, he's had to curb his enthusiasm a bit on this trip.) We had fun watching the ice hikers and ice climbers getting ready to do their thing, and then went back down to explore the town. We bought some sausage and cheese from a specialty store. We had a little picnic, and then drove up a ways because Mark wanted to hike to a glacier. By this time my throat was hurting worse, but I stuck it out. The hike was of course harder than we thought, but I made it to the top where I just sat while Mark looked around. I was feeling pretty rough.
On the way home, we went through a bad thunderstorm. We were on the autoroute, when all of a sudden we saw all of this debris on the road. It led us to a car that had evidently just spun out of control and hit the center railing. We were able to dodge the debris and go around the car, but it was evident that the driver (a girl) was hurt, and Mark stopped in front of her. I tried to call 112 (911) in French, but because of the storm, couldn't get through. (I don't know what I would have told them....I had no clue where we were!) Another couple called, though, and reported the accident. A third man appeared, and he happened to be a fireman. The injured lady handed me her cell phone and asked me to call her brother. She had him on speed dial, so it was already ringing. But, I only got his voice mail. I told him his sister had been in an accident on the autoroute and we were waiting for an ambulance. Mind you, it was POURING rain! Someone brought forth an umbrella, which Mark held for the fireman, who was trying to work with the lady. She lost consciousness once, and we thought we were going to have to do CPR, but she came to, thank goodness. STILL POURING RAIN. Someone got me off of the road behind the guard rail, and told me to just motion for cars to slow down. So several of us did that, in the POURING COLD RAIN, while they worked with the lady. It took the responders forever to get there, but they finally did, and then Mark and I left. We were soaked and chilled to the bone. About 2 miles down the road, we were in sunshine again and it hadn't even rained there!
I was feeling pretty lousy with my sore throat and all, and exhausted from my hike and the adrenaline rush from working the accident, so when we finally did get back to the hotel I showered and we went to eat something and I crashed!
The next morning, we read in the paper that it had rained 20 centimeters (We think that is about 7-8 inches) in a short amount of time, and that the responders had responded to 70 calls. I guess that is why it took so long for them to come to our accident. There was even a picture in the paper of the accident!
It was a pretty harrowing experience, all in all. Hopefully the young lady pulled through. I'm sure she had several broken bones and possibly internal injuries, because there was no blood on the scene.
I forgot to mention yesterday that we met a very elderly lady on the train to Grenoble who had never heard of Texas! She had heard of New York, but not Texas. I tried everything.....cowboys, guns, horses, but she just kept saying "je ne connais pas" (I'm not familiar with it). I should have said "George Bush"!
According to Rick Steves, we needed to get up early to go to Chamonix if we wanted to ride the lift to the top of the mountain to view Mont Blanc. So we did.....we left Annecy around 7:30 a.m.
It is about 50 miles to Chamonix, and about 20 miles out Mont Blanc popped into view. It was absolutely magnificent! We arrived in the town (compared to Aspen in the USA) surrounded by mountains, most of them still covered with snow in July! We bought our tickets (38 Euros each) to go to the top of Aiguille du Midi on a really scary-looking lift. We got halfway up and then had to change to another one. It took about 20 minutes to get to the top, where we were surrounded by absolutely beautiful snow-covered mountains. We took pictures. We asked some Japanese tourists to take our picture, and then they wanted to have a picture made with us, but they wanted to switch spouses! I was with the Japansese man, and Mark was with his wife! It was pretty funny, but unfortunately we didn't get a copy of that picture!
Mark had a coffee on top of the mountain for 3 euros (his habit is very expensive, he's had to curb his enthusiasm a bit on this trip.) We had fun watching the ice hikers and ice climbers getting ready to do their thing, and then went back down to explore the town. We bought some sausage and cheese from a specialty store. We had a little picnic, and then drove up a ways because Mark wanted to hike to a glacier. By this time my throat was hurting worse, but I stuck it out. The hike was of course harder than we thought, but I made it to the top where I just sat while Mark looked around. I was feeling pretty rough.
On the way home, we went through a bad thunderstorm. We were on the autoroute, when all of a sudden we saw all of this debris on the road. It led us to a car that had evidently just spun out of control and hit the center railing. We were able to dodge the debris and go around the car, but it was evident that the driver (a girl) was hurt, and Mark stopped in front of her. I tried to call 112 (911) in French, but because of the storm, couldn't get through. (I don't know what I would have told them....I had no clue where we were!) Another couple called, though, and reported the accident. A third man appeared, and he happened to be a fireman. The injured lady handed me her cell phone and asked me to call her brother. She had him on speed dial, so it was already ringing. But, I only got his voice mail. I told him his sister had been in an accident on the autoroute and we were waiting for an ambulance. Mind you, it was POURING rain! Someone brought forth an umbrella, which Mark held for the fireman, who was trying to work with the lady. She lost consciousness once, and we thought we were going to have to do CPR, but she came to, thank goodness. STILL POURING RAIN. Someone got me off of the road behind the guard rail, and told me to just motion for cars to slow down. So several of us did that, in the POURING COLD RAIN, while they worked with the lady. It took the responders forever to get there, but they finally did, and then Mark and I left. We were soaked and chilled to the bone. About 2 miles down the road, we were in sunshine again and it hadn't even rained there!
I was feeling pretty lousy with my sore throat and all, and exhausted from my hike and the adrenaline rush from working the accident, so when we finally did get back to the hotel I showered and we went to eat something and I crashed!
The next morning, we read in the paper that it had rained 20 centimeters (We think that is about 7-8 inches) in a short amount of time, and that the responders had responded to 70 calls. I guess that is why it took so long for them to come to our accident. There was even a picture in the paper of the accident!
It was a pretty harrowing experience, all in all. Hopefully the young lady pulled through. I'm sure she had several broken bones and possibly internal injuries, because there was no blood on the scene.
2 comments:
I cannot believe you were sick. The accident was truly amazing to read about. Wow - you 2 probably saved her life. How is the driving over there? Like us or on the other side?
Pam
They drive on the right, just like we do. It's not bad at all. You have to learn what the visual signs mean, of course, and then it helps being able to read the signs. I think it would be hard if one couldn't read. The roundabouts are great! I wish we had them in the USA, instead of so many red lights!
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