Le Havre – Paris St Lazare – Paris Gare de Lyon – Lausanne – Martigny – Le Chatelard Frontière – Vallorcine – Chamonix Mont-Blanc

I was up early for the first Interrail day of this trip. With a TGV connection out of Paris at lunchtime I couldn’t take any chances or I wouldn’t make it to my destination tonight, so needed to be on the 08:09.

I was sad to leave Le Havre, and indeed this hotel. Both had been very welcoming and already on my radar for a future visit, but for now it was a quick breakfast (with fresh bread and pastries, of course) before throwing things into my bag and heading to the station next door.

Arriving almost 15 minutes before departure I was expecting the train to still be quiet, but not at all. I had booked the last available seat in First Class the previous evening, and my fellow travellers were already settled in.

With a backwards seat on the aisle there really wasn’t a lot to see, but the weather was clearly very grey so I didn’t miss much.

I’ve not passed through St Lazare before. It’s a pleasant enough place and was very busy on a Monday rush hour. I couldn’t immediately find my way to the Metro station and seemed to go around three sides of a square before reaching the entrance. Unlike many urban systems you can’t just tap your card here, you have to buy a physical card which you then charge up with one or more tickets. I seem to have acquired a collection of these over the past few years. I think you can cash them back in but I never bother – I guess that’s why they do it!

The journey to Gare de Lyon doesn’t take long. I don’t know this station either, other than by reputation as an attractive place. The exit from the Metro is into an underground concourse but I found my way to the surface and could quickly see why it is well thought of.

The trip so far had gone to schedule so I had some time here and had planned to head outside and explore a part of Paris that I don’t know at all. Unfortunately the rain was hammering down on the beautiful glazed roof, indeed station staff were out on the floor cleaning machines vacuuming up the puddles.

Instead I decided to take a walk around this rather lovely station. The huge mural down one wall with a painted collage of destinations is more than a match for similar things I’ve seen elsewhere; quite remarkable.

Le Train Bleu is iconic. I’ve heard so much about it that I had to step inside if only for a moment. The decoration really does take your breath away, though the menu wasn’t to my taste, even if I’d had the time.

Instead I headed back to the platform, found myself some pasta for later and headed to the concourse. Thankfully the rain had relented by the time we were ready to board. The TGVs are huge trains and it took me several minutes to walk to my seat in the front carriage. Happily this time I was upstairs with a window seat facing forwards.

We departed on time, but by now it was already raining again. I didn’t see much of France for the next couple of hours, though there was respite from the rain as we crossed the border into Switzerland.

I’ve passed through Lausanne a couple of times now, but never yet stepped off the platform. The change here was due to be 9 minutes, but ended up as just 4 as we were running late. Fortunately my next train was in the adjacent platform.

Swiss trains really are something else. I was one of only 3 people in first class and ended up nabbing a kind of bistro area where I could easily swap sides to look out of both windows.

Sadly the views were again fairly rubbish. We headed along the banks of Lac Léman in the pouring rain with no sign of the far bank, just 6 or 7 miles away. At Montreux I got a glimpse of a rather attractive old tram, as we passed by.

The rain finally relented shortly after this. I finally saw something of the Swiss mountains and even a few vineyards as we approached Martigny.

I changed trains here for the line to Chamonix. With plenty of time for my connection I went to the station buffet and bought a cup of tea and a snack. My next train was narrow gauge, though included in the Interrail pass as so many are in Switzerland. I was a little phased when it departed sooner than I was expected. A quick look at the planner revealed that this one was actually ahead of the one I had intended and stopped just short of the border back into France. Not a problem after all.

At the second stop, Vernayaz MC, the train paused for a few minutes by what looked like a rail depot or museum. As we pulled away the gradient suddenly changed and looking down the side of the train I could just about see that we were now on a rack railway – I hadn’t expected that!

Moments later I was completely distracted from this as my cup of tea, still full, tipped off the table as the train was climbing so steeply. It went everywhere, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it, unfortunately.

Recomposing myself I looked back out of the window. The rate of climb was astonishing. In just a few minutes the valley I had arrived along was way below us. We passed through a tunnel and were into a new valley, clinging onto the mountainside as we continued to climb.

This is a truly astonishing railway line. Sections are rack and others are not. The power is intermittently supplied from overhead cables but at other times comes from a third rail, rather like south-eastern England. The train takes it all in its stride. I’m amazed it is not better known, I’d say it was the equal of anything else I’ve seen, yet most of my fellow passengers were students on their way home from college plus a few shoppers. By the time we reached the end station, I was one of only three people on board.

Because I’d caught the earlier train I had a little time to look around at this station, which was pretty much in sight of the border, just around the next bend.

Back on my originally intended service, which again was not very busy, we crossed back into France, changing at the next station, Vallorcine.

The final leg to Chamonix was on a French local service. By now we were descending and seemed to coast most of the way.

Chamonix station is on the edge of the town. It had clearly been raining earlier but was dry now. There were a few people around and I immediately noticed the mountains in all directions. I think I was expecting it to be quite garish but thought it was quite a charming little place. I rather liked a large mural on one of the buildings in the town centre.

After checking in to my little B&B hidden in a back street I went back out for a walk. My first task was to work out where tomorrow’s bus would depart from. I had a reasonably early start and again did not want to risk missing it, as that would mess up the whole day.

The bus stops are at one end of the town, and helpfully a Flixbus was already there to point me to the exact spot.

Returning to town via different route I found the cable car to Mont Blanc. An old car had been turned into a small museum, which was freely accessible and I thought rather interesting. I was astonished by the cost of taking a ride to the top though. It was closed but if I had wanted to do it the next day, I wouldn’t have had much change from £70.

Continuing my exploration I happened across a couple of statues of famous climbers seemingly looking up at Mont Blanc. I couldn’t see it due to low cloud, but was left in no doubt which direction it was in. I then noticed that all the large hotels were also orientated in the same direction, diagonally off to the south west of the town, which made for some interesting designs, maximising the number of windows pointing the “right” way.

I wrapped up my evening in a tiny Indian restaurant. I’m really not good at remembering to eat early on when I’m travelling, so the choice was somewhat limited as most places had already closed. Fortunately it was very pleasant, though once a couple who had been there as I arrived had finished I was on my own.

A Geordie couple came in a little while later, and ordered a Chicken Tikka Masala, a Vindaloo and some chips. How British can you get? We got chatting about our respective travels and it turned out that we were each doing roughly what the other had previously.