Chamonix Mont Blanc (1st day)

I've been to Chamonix Mont Blanc from 21st to 24th December. Skiing in Chamonix has been one of my dreams since I went to Chamonix in December 2007. Back then, I've tried skiing for the first time in my life, and it was fantastic experience! Since then, I've tried to learn skiing whenever there was a chance, and now I can say my skiing skill is intermediate level. Unfortunately I couldn't make it in last winter due to tons of coursework to do during the Christmas vacation. In this year, my resolution was solid. Fortunately, I found another 1st DPhil student in Oxford, Mr Chun. His skiing level seemed to be more or less on a par with mine, and he looked overexcited about skiing in Alps like me. Can't ask for any better travel mate than Mr. Chun.

Normally, if I have a long vacation like Christmas vacation in the UK, I prefer doing something at the beginning of the holiday. This is because most people are excited about no work for the first couple of days. So, I normally prefer doing something at the beginning of the vacation, and then come back to work during the holiday. That's why I'm writing this on the 31st December in the office.
On 21st December, we met in front of my house at 7 o'clock in the morning. Chun slept in his office again, and yet looked energetic as usuall. We had to depart early in the morning since it's actually quite a long journey (Oxford rail station - Paddington rail station in London - Liverpool street rail station - Stansted international airport - Geneva international airport - Chamonix) and we prefer spending a couple of hours in stations rather than missing bus, train, airplane and etc, messing up the whole journey. It was one of normal travel except a couple of things. Firstly, Standsted airport was terrible, and I will never use it again. They offered slightly lower flight fees than other airports, but the security people are extremely strict and rude. This was only terrible thing in this trip.

I had been worrying about the weather in Geneva and Chamonix. Several weather forecasts have said that there will be raining on 22nd. Flying over Alps on the way to Geneva is one of the key points in this trip, but unfortunately we weren't able to see anything other than clouds. When we arrived in Geneva, it was raining. If I had a chance to talk with the locals in Geneva, I wanted to ask if it's raining in December because of global warming or if this has been usual. But my concern was relieved as we approached to Chamonix. Drops of water were gradually changing to snowflakes. And when we got there, it was a small village painted with white pigment.

Probably right in front of the rail station

It would not be just romantic for the locals

Snowing

Me, throwing a snowball

Pretty Christmas pine trees on the street

We rushed to ski rental shops to rent ski jeckets and pants. I've prepared maps with the locations of ten ski rental shops. But when we walked down the street from the rail station for 5 minutes, I immediately realized that I wasted my time. Ski rental shops were everywere, and it's more proper to say that it's even difficult not to see a ski rental shop. We were able to easily rent two black jackets and pants. In the hotel 'Hotel Prieure', we stayed for three days and were supposed to rent a ski and a snowboard. It's 109 euros a night for a twin room excluding breakfast. The room was quite warm and quiet, and had a nice view through the window. Particularly if you arrive in Chamonix after 6 o'clock, and wake up in the morning on the next day, the panorama of magnificent alps displayed through the window is overwhelming. 

 As soon as we put down our stuffs in the room, we went out to have a dinner. I was thinking of two french local foods before coming to Chamonix: Fondue and Escargot, and tried Fondue on the first day. The price was reasonable (about 10 euros each), but there was nothing other than baguette and a pot of boiling cheese. When we saw what we've got on the table, we thought, 'This can't be a dinner'. But after finishing the baguette and a pot of cheese, we got quite full. This is where we say. 'it's worth trying any experience whether it's good or bad one'. No Fondue for the next 10 years probably!

The cozy restaurant in Chamonix

Yummy Fondue, and yet only bread and cheese. (Where is meat?)

It had been snowing for over a week in Chamonix. The town Chamonix Mont Blanc was presenting what I was expecting to see, and we were very pleased to come to Chamonix for skiing. We went to bed at 11 o'clock looking forward to the following days.