Charmonix

The second of our Jewish Holiday Weekend Tours began in Geneva, which we’d picked because Google advertised it as a cheap fare from Madrid (other candidates: Malaga, Copenhagen, Paris). Our friends the Ansel-Rajagopals had spent over a year in the area, and recommended that we head from Geneva up to Charmonix, France – a valley in the French Alps with elaborate networks of gondolas and lifts up the mountainsides and over glaciers. So off we went.

One way that Jon and I measure the success of our trips is by counting the number of unprovoked kid “wows” elicited by whatever it is we’re seeing. Nora’s actually the easiest Starhill to wow, as she has a highly developed aesthetic and finds basic nature stuff (mountains, the sea) beautiful. Seth is the hardest to wow, because his little mind mostly focuses on soccer, soccer cards, and when he’s getting his next sugar fix. Nathan is somewhere in the middle.

This trip got at least four unprovoked wows from Seth, which is a record. Here’s why:

And this:

And this:

In addition to stunning scenery, Charmonix is also the home of lots of really good fondue restaurants. And French boulangeries. With keish. And treats.

One note about Charmonix, in case you’re inclined to go: nearly the entire network of gondolas and trains shuts down the first two weeks in October. The local tourism officials seemed aghast that we’d show up during this week – several pointed out our folly. In our defense, this shutdown is only noted on the deep, dark (schedule) pages of their website. Waaayy past the purchase-a-multiday-pass page. Way past.

Nevertheless, we found plenty to do – lots of valley hikes with the kids. One day, we passed a whole phalanx of kindergartners climbing a rock wall:

(Small kids + danger = very European – see prior sabbatical year’s post on European playgrounds). We also passed the ruins of a church:

And walked along a pretty glacial river:

We did take a few trips up Mont Blanc on the one open gondola line. I (Heather) was not thrilled with being hauled in a tiny car held by a string straight up an ice-covered rock face. Seth was less than thrilled that it was winter at the top – snow, high wind, freezing temperatures.  So we (and actually, N & N also) sat out the return trip the next day, instead hiking around the mid-point of the mountain, which was quite a bit warmer and also not hard on the eyes: