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Now we’re definitely up in the Alps. Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, the official name of the town, was the site of the first-ever winter Olympics 100 years ago and has long been – and continues to be – a center of year-round Alpine activity. Whether skiing in the winter or hiking in the summer, this is the place to be for outdoor adventure.

These days when we travel we pretty much always have our hotels reserved in advance; we’ve had too many experiences when the hotel we want is no longer available just a few days or even weeks in advance. And sometimes we even have meals reserved. Rarely, though, do we schedule and reserve activities in advance. In Chamonix, that was a mistake.

We got here by bus from Annecy – an easy and comfortable 90-minute ride – and started to research “what to do” in Chamonix. We quickly come up with a couple really exciting options. Neither Mark nor I have ever been on a helicopter so we’re going to do a helicopter tour of Mont Blanc, right behind the city and the highest mountain in Europe. And we’re going to take a cable car – the Téléphérique – way up the mountain called Aiguille du Midi with spectacular views over France, Switzerland, and Italy. Sounds great!

Except it turns out that in tourist-intense Chamonix you have to plan and reserve these thing well in advance. I went to the website of the helicopter tour agency, expecting to make a reservation. Instead I had to fill out a form, with a promise they would respond within 24 hours. Never heard from them. Nothing. Presumably they were so full they didn’t need to respond.

OK then, how about that Téléphérique up Aiguille du Midi? Nope, that’s sold out too. The receptionist at the hotel told us that if you get there early in the morning they sometimes release tickets for later in the day so we got up early for breakfast and headed over. No way. No tickets available for days. Definitely frustrating but that’s what we get for prioritizing spontaneity over planning. We like landing in a city and figuring out what to do but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way.

You might think, then, that maybe Chamonix is a little overrun with tourists, right? And the answer would be absolutely. It is a genuinely beautiful alpine town, down in a valley with mountains climbing up all around the city. Beautiful hotels, beautiful restaurants, beautiful flowers, beautiful shops. Even beautiful people. Notwithstanding the hordes, there is lots to love in Chamonix even if you can’t do the things you want.

While this was Mark’s first trip high up in the French Alps, it was actually my third. I came up here twice while I was in the Navy in the 1970s, once in the summer when my ship was in Toulon and once in the early spring, again on a cruise to Toulon. I have absolutely no idea where in the Alps we were but I have vivid and fabulous memories of both trips. The one thing I’m certain of is that I didn’t come to Chamonix or anything nearly as expensive and fabulous as this town!

So, if you can’t do the things you really wanted to do what do you do in Chamonix? Well, our first afternoon I went on a modest hike up Le Brévant, the mountain that rises from the town across from Aiguille du Midi. It was mid-afternoon before I got out so nothing too intense, but beautiful. And the next day I did a measurably longer hike, further up Le Brévant. That hike was really beautiful with some occasional views down the valley and up the mountains across the way.

One of the striking things about those hikes was the number of trail runners you encounter. Here I am working pretty hard to get up the mountain trail and literally dozens of runners, men and women, come running by. Admittedly more down than up (I have to guess that some of them drive or maybe take a cable car up and then run down) but sometimes you definitely see the same runner on the way up and then later on the way down. To me it seems almost physically impossible and incredibly dangerous – they seem like broken ankles just waiting to happen. But apparently it’s a real thing because there were a lot of them.

So the hiking was great. And then you would see all these hang gliders up in the sky so we thought, hell, we could do that. It’s a tandem ride where they strap you onto an experienced guide and all you do is lie there while he or she does all the work. Again, we’ve never done it before but it’s quite the thing in Chamonix. On our first full day then we make reservations for the next day. Sounds great.

Except the weather doesn’t cooperate at all. While the weather was perfect on arrival and the next day – mid 70s, lots of sunshine – by the next day it was completely overcast, foggy and rainy. So no hang gliding either. Dammit. All was not lost though. Because the weather was so bad all of a sudden you could now go to the Téléphérique, buy a ticket, and just head up the mountain. They made it clear that the views were seriously compromised (which is why so many people had canceled and rescheduled their tickets), but you could go if you wanted. The views were no where near as good – at the highest point you could see precisely nothing – but for some of the trip the views were still pretty good. So at least we got that in.

I thought Chamonix was beautiful and exciting enough to warrant perhaps a return visit some day. We know now, though, to plan this one well in advance. Maybe someday.