Chamonix Life

Every once in a while we get the feeling that this is the place, the place where we’d like to discover more, experience new adventures, and spend a longer period of time. This time it was the picturesque Chamonix Valley. Whilst we had visited a few times before, once for the epic Tour du Mont-Blanc hike and a couple of winter day trips, it was having the good fortunate to spend eight weeks house and pet sitting for friends that made the decision. It was super hard not to settle into Chamonix Life and join the countless Brits that call the picturesque town home. What we hadn’t envisioned was that our long term move would coincide with a health epidemic of huge proportions!

Chamonix itself sits at a little over 1000 meters at the foot of the highest peaks in the Alps, more than enough reason to tolerate the droves of tourists who visit at various times of the year. With snow-sports, mountain biking, rock climbing, trail running, mountaineering, hiking, rafting and paragliding to name but a few activities, this is an adventurers playground.

We had just returned from the warmth of New Zealand and Australia, the temperature difference between the southern hemisphere and the Alps instantly hitting us – was it going to be easy to adjust? We hoped so as ski lessons were imminent! We were to move into a small studio for the first three months, part of a converted house that came with epic views of the Mont Blanc massif and a mere 40 minute walk into the centre of Chamonix – this was the first time we would spend 3 months in the same place in the past 8 years! Luckily the small space was no surprise; our two big duffels and two bikes finding places to live without limiting our real estate drastically.

Neither of us had ever skied before and couldn’t wait for the first week to be over so the fun could begin – five days of lessons on the bunny slopes around Chamonix was going to be a blast. In the meantime, and having our snowshoes with us, we had plenty of time to head out on the same picturesque trails we discovered in the summer. We had also rented a car through Europcar for a month, a surprisingly cheap convenience that we hadn’t expected and would allow us to settle in nicely.

Ski lessons came and went and at the same time cases of the new coronavirus skyrocketed. It very much looked like we weren’t going to get to practice our new sport for very much longer this season. Soon enough the announcement came… all of France was to be in a full lockdown; bars, restaurants, ski lifts, non-essential shops all had to close immediately! And to top it all off there were ridiculous limits on being outside – one hour a day, within one kilometre of the house, and no more than 100 vertical metres. We live in an outdoor mecca with steep mountainsides all around, the altitude and distance limits surpassed within five minutes! Life would suck for over 8 weeks.