August 28, 2024 Chamonix, France

Tomorrow, the TMB!

Back in Geneva I bought a nice Swiss rail pass for 1/2 price tickets, however today I went to France. That means changing trains at the border and using a different currency.  The exchange rate is so close to 1:1 (the Swiss franc is slightly more valuable than the Euro at the moment) that French border towns are happy to take francs and give change in euros. 

Light from green stained glass in the Lausanne cathedral 


I had a nice afternoon and evening in Lausanne yesterday. The Rick Steve’s guide book calls it a “3 dimensional city”. I found out what that means. Not only is the city built on a steep hill rising from the lake, but it’s also built in deep ravines spreading inland from the lake. When you look at a flat map and see two roads crossing you have no idea that one road is at the bottom of a ravine and another is a couple hundred feet above it on a bridge!  It was very fun to walk around though. 

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Lausanne 

From the top of the cathedral 


First station in France on the way to Chamonix

The River full of glacial silt running through town and the big glacier in the background 

A zoom in on the glacier. It does look like it’s going to overrun the town any time now 

The finish line of the ultramarathon UTMB races. People were finishing one race that started 40 hours earlier. 







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