Mont Blanc Tramway

We left the Annecy campsite and drove south down the lake up the mountains to Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains near Chamonix at the bottom of Mont Blanc.

We initially were in busy traffic coming up to roadworks before the road cleared and we were off.

The road was amazing - lots of curves and bends - and endlessly going up- but all in good condition with no potholes.

We went through the ski town of Megeve - very large with lots of skiing chalets everywhere.

We then arrived in Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains on the edge of Mont Blanc looking down onto the large town of Passy.

We were booked on the Mont Blanc Tramway - a long way up Mont Blanc- tomorrow. However there is a lot of rain predicted for the next couple of days.

We walked up town to check it all out.

The mural was to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the landing of the first plane at the Col du Dome on

July 30, 1921 by the Geneva aviator François Durafour.

We then went to the Mont Blanc Tramway Station where we were able to change our tickets to going up in 15 minutes time while the weather was still good. We jumped onboard and we were off!

The train passed by chalets and back gardens until we were up in the trees overlooking the valley. And then we were above the tree line looking up into the huge mountains.

We stopped at a few stations on the way dropping off and picking up people. Many were hikers who were walking between the stations.

After an hour we arrived at the top station of Lachat. Mountaineers can go to higher stations but they needed to be registered.

Mont Blanc towered over our heads - still covered in snow. We couldn’t see the top as it was in the clouds.

We went for a walk up the small hill next to the tram stop. We looked down into Chamonix , the other side of large mountains from Saint Gervais.

At the top was an orientation table showing the mountains and their names, Mont Blanc being the highest at 4,807 meters - and is the highest in the Alps.

At the end of the point was a paraglider ready to take off. His wife was helping him get ready. He ran and took off with no problems. His wife then had to walk to the top of the cable car to get back down.

Glenn got some lovely photos of the flowers.

We then walked on to another high point not far away but had to keep an eye on the time - the last train was 1 hour 20 minutes after we arrived there.

Glenn got talking to another birdwatcher at the high point so I left him to get on with it while I headed back to the station.

I found some other good views.

I then arrived at the station and found some information on the tramway. It was built in 1906 initially intended to go to the top of Mont Blanc.

Technical difficulties, the estimated cost and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 limited what could be done. It was then used for military and industrial purposes. One of the things was to built a wind tunnel to experiment with the development of aircraft to deal with the high altitudes.

By the end there was a mess of buildings being used by mountaineers. The local department then got ownership of the area and got rid of the buildings and tidied it up extensively - a big job!

You can see before and after below.

The train had gone up higher to pick up any mountaineers and was on its way down.

Glenn turned up eventually 10 minutes before the train left - thank goodness.

On the way down the evening light showed up the ripples in the mountainsides.

We then went down through the houses.

We got back to the station and as we walked up the road we were caught in a very heavy rain shower. Luckily there was a bar just across the road so we nipped in for a quick beer.

We eventually got back to Gus only slightly damp and had a warm dinner of harissa salmon.

We were on a slight downhill slope so we put up the safety net on the bed. It felt a little bit like being in a cage! However no one fell out of bed.