Today we ascended over 12,600 feet via one of the world's highest cable cars to L'Aiguille du Midi, where we marveled at the panoramic views of the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps.  The scenery was well worth the effort of dragging ourselves out of bed this morning (yes, those partiers are still howling every night, from 10 until 3, at least) and the frozen fingers and toes when we got to the top.  The photos can hardly do it justice, but we've included a few so you can get some sense of the beauty.

After we returned to Chamonix village, we hopped aboard the Montenveres train to the Mer de Glace--"Sea of Ice"--the largest glacier in France.  Before descending into the glacier itself, we stopped for lunch at the Hotel, where Sierra enjoyed this delicious French lunch.  After lunch, we boarded the telecabin for the short ride to the 334 steps down into the glacier.  It was incredible to look across the valley and see the blue ice glowing in the distance, and right before our eyes as we made our way down the stairs.  At the bottom, we entered the tunnel and made our way into the magical blue world of the glacier, complete with unusual human touches including different colored lights and full rooms carved into the ice.  While those things caught our eyes briefly, we were most struck by the natural beauty and enormity of the ice.  As we made our way back up to the telecabin, it was disturbing to see the signs indicating the previous reach of the glacier and to note how dramatically it has receded in only 20 years.  The photo here shows the glacier meandering through the valley, moving at the incredible rate of 1 cm per  hour.  Tomorrow, I hope to post more photos from our visit to the glacier.