The Clouds Part in Chamonix

Our flight from San Francisco to Paris was easy. In a midnight zone we passed just short of the summer light over the far, far north; if I have this right, this is the sunlight coming from the other side of the North Pole while we are under a cloudy night sky (ignore the space ships going by):

We got on a train in Paris, after a wait and a snack in the station there. Plenty to look at, including a self-powered charging station for personal electronic devices:

Harlan had good fun with his camera.

We changed trains in Lyon, after another snack and wait. The train stations have pianos available to anyone who wants to play. It is popular enough that people actually wait a tiny bit impatiently for their crack at it (I guess they have a train to catch).

Another short train ride, an hour on a shuttle, and we got to Chamonix in rain and fell into bed. A morning walk got us into town for a look at a climbing wall competition and some local color.

Early this morning the clouds cleared from the tops of the peaks just above us so we can see what we've been missing so far. This view from our window has Mt Blanc, center, the highest mountain in Europe, over 15K'. Just left of center, that's a glacier; it reached into town in the 1700s. It's cold but Harlan's putting the bikes together and we hope to check out some local roads. We can ride to Switzerland and back from here.