AUGUST 10th, 2013
It's only mid-afternoon when we arrive back in Cham after our jaunt up to the Mer de Glace so we decide to aim high again and ascend the Aiguille di Midi for a closeup encounter with the highest mountain in western Europe.
The first section of the telepherique ride is in a full cable car holding 70 people, squashed together, and is a surprisingly scary affair - I'd forgotten from a previous visit how the rapid ascent can leave you feeling a bit heady and by the time we reach the midway station my head is thumping. We continue straight up to the top tower, at a very heady 3,842 metres. The views are truly stupendous, the appreciation of the engineering marvel involved in putting the cables and pulleys up is awe-inspiring, but I'm not keen to hang around. As it happens our late arrival means we have no choice but to descend on the next available cable car. Just time to take some photos, grab a coffee and, in Richard's case, jealously eye up the mountaineers heading off onto the steep snow ridges.
The day ends in typical franco fashion - a bottle of wine under a starlit sky, a game of Pass the Pigs, betting with curtain hooks on pontoon, a peaceful and contented sleep.
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