Manuel Valls tries to spoil our day: he fails!

So who is Manuel Valls? Well we now know he is Prime Minister of France and he decided to visit Montenvers, Mer de Glace on the same day as we decided to visit. He does not come alone as he bought all the civic dignatories that Chamonix could muster, a bevy of MPs, and most of the Gendarmes in France all in body armour and sub machine guns at the ready! The Gendarmes were kept busy by at least one lady protester who needed three of these Gendarmes to wrestle her to the ground. His visit was to show he cared about climate change ( the glacier is receding fast and soon there may not be a tourist attraction left!) and the protesters were saying he did not really care!

A short walk from our hotel to the lower station of the rack railway up to Montenvers, Mer de Glace

The ticket office: I have photo shopped all the crowds of people out by using a photo taken last evening!

Prime Minister's shiny train!

Arriving at Montenvers, a half hour ride into the mountains

A bit basic!

A Military Band to greet us!

Mer de Glace glacier

 When we got to the top we were expecting to go some of the way down by cable car but it did not seem to be running so we headed off down this steep path. Half way down we were turned back by a plain clothed security official who told us access to the glacier was closed from then until early afternoon, so dejected we returned! On complaining back at Montenvers we were told the cable car was running all day so we went down on it!

 The cable car only runs on demand. It was not running so we all thought it was closed!

So down the 400 steps to the ice cave
 

And not so easy up the 400 steps at close on 2,000 metres altitude!

Machine for creating the ice cave

Waiting for our return train
 

Company on the way down!

Views of Chamonix on the way down

Shame it is no longer steam!

Waiting for the Prime Minister?

Afternoon spent exploring Chamonix and some shopping after an Ice Cream!

A well earned Cuppa!

After extensive research we decided to eat here this evening

 We had hoped to do the cable car up the other side of Chamonix to get views of Mont Blanc but it was closed for post summer and pre winter overhaul!

Middle station
 

Chamonix base station - closed!

First stage

Top Station

So back to the hotel (our room on second floor and James directly above) to pack for the journey home on Saturday!