The Mount Blanc Tunnel....

Today, I drove with my friends from Geneva, Switzerland to Chamonix, France where we reconoitered with some other friends. Then we all proceeded onto Courmayeur, Italy where we had lunch. The lunch was wonderful and not comparatively expensive at Eur30 [US$35.10/ HK$272.5] a head, including wine, Grappa [that tastes like jet fuel or other high octane petroleum products] and that chilled lemony Italian aparatif whose name escapes me at this moment. Courmayeur is a charming town very much different than the French, more commercialized town of Chamonix. Additionally, there was a light snow that added to the charm and pleasantness of the place.

Between Chamonix and Courmayeur, there is a 11.6 kilometer [7.25 miles] long tunnel that originally opened in 1965 connecting the two towns under Mount Blanc. Mount Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps and in Western Europe. Unfortunately, the weather and low clouds did not allow me to see much of the mountain but I was able to see it earlier in the week from the shores of Lake Geneva. The tunnel is truly an amazing feat of engineering, what also amazed me was the round-trip toll cost a whopping 38.60 Euros [HK$350/US$45.15].

Back in 1999, the tunnel was in the news when 41 people perished in a fire in the tunnel, chronicled here.