poliphilo

Ruth had this dream of riding a cable car to the top of Mont Blanc- or as close as you can get- and drinking chocolate there. So we did what we could to realise it. To be honest it was a bit of a nightmare. The cable car was crowded and swayed like a ship and by the time we emerged on the pinnacle of L'Aigulle du Midi- and it really is a pinnacle- like something on the borders of Mordor- we were suffering from a combination of altitude sickness and sea-sickness which was seriously weird and unpleasant. I don't know if there was hot chocolate on offer- but if there was it was just about the last thing any of us would have wanted to contemplate- and the posh restaurant was closed. Ailz and I made a dizzy tour of the souvenir shop- which sells crud- and came down again on the next available car. Ruth and Matt lasted half an hour longer- but only- we learned later- because Ruth was initially too giddy to move. I would like to have some pictures to show you of the view from the summit, but it was blowing hard and cold on the observation platforms and I was afraid of losing my hat. At the bottom of the mountain- in the building housing the cable car- there's a nice, clean, little cafeteria to recover in. I had rabbit pie and frozen raspberry mousse- and I'll tell you what- it's almost impossible to get a really bad meal in France.

A few mountains have highly distinctive profiles- the Eiger for instance and the Matterhorn. Mont Blanc isn't one of them. The last of these photos certainly shows Mt Blanc. I'm not sure about the others.