Blame it on the Brits at Chamonix

The Brits seem to be getting blamed for everything this month! Hey, we can take it on the chin. Perhaps Europe needs to have a rethink? Sarko and Muckel (sorry) have re-elections next year so they need to do some grand standing but this Euro fiasco is going to end in disaster, mark my words.

Anyhow let see how France Today is blaming the Brits in Chamonix!

Blame it on the Brits. Chamonix was a sleepy Savoyard village nestled at the foot of Mont Blanc until 1741 when William Windham and Richard Pococke arrived in search of adventure. The two young British aristocrats clambered up the local glacier, explored the nearby mountains and subsequently penned such a romantic picture of the region in their journals that they fired the imagination of their fellow countrymen. For the next century and more—Anglo-French wars permitting—Chamonix became an essential stop for English travelers making the Grand Tour of Europe. Alpine tourism had arrived and Chamonix became its capital.

Fast forward to the 21st century and, despite the rise of other winter resorts, Chamonix remains the grande dame of the Alps. Windham and Pococke's glacier—the Mer de Glace—is still there, winding its majestic way down the Mont Blanc massif, and so too is the magnificent setting that once inspired poets like Shelley and Byron—the latter declaring Mont Blanc to be the "monarch of mountains". Novelist Charles Dickens had great expectations when he visited in 1847 and he was not disappointed. "Mont Blanc and the Valley of Chamonix, and the Sea of Ice, and all the wonders of the most wonderful place are above and beyond one's wildest expectation," he enthused. "I cannot imagine anything in nature more stupendous or sublime."

Read much more: Chamonix: The Grande Dame of the Alps

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