Lovely spring conditions are still here in Chamonix, but thankfully the snow will return soon. While we patiently wait for the beautiful white stuff to settle, we will be looking for ways to pass the time!
Luckily there are plenty of indoor activities to keep us entertained in the valley. Here we’ve narrowed down the ‘alternative activities – indoor edition’ to five, all definitely worth trying out.
Indoor Climbing
This activity can be done all year round with two great indoor public climbing walls to choose from. There is a climbing wall/bouldering room in the Richard Bozen Sports Centre in the centre of town. Open 7 days a week from €5.40 per adult, call +33 4 50 53 23 70 for more info. There is also a larger wall at Mt Blanc Escalade located in Les Houches. This is a great place to practice bouldering, top roping and lead climbing. There are routes for everyone, nearly 120 in fact, from grade 4 to 9a, with more than 10 new routes each month. You can hire kit there, have lessons and the first Wednesday of every month is buy one get one free after 6pm. Price info can be found at http://www.montblancescalade.com/tarifs/
Indoor swimming pool in the Richard Bozen Sports Center, which also has an indoor skating rink, fitness gym and sauna. The center is open daily Monday-Friday 12-5:30pm, Saturday 2-6pm and Sunday 2-7:30pm.
Bowling is always fun and a great laugh with friends or family! The Bowling de Chamonix Mont Blanc also has snooker tables, a bar, miniature golf course and over 15 arcade games. You will find it right next to the bus station in Chamonix Sud.
Visiting Museums; Yes you can do this in Chamonix too! There is the Alpine Museum in town just at the bottom of Avenue Michel Croz or you can take the train to the Montenvers station and see the Mer de Glace Museum. Both wonderful for learning about the culture and history of Chamonix.
Cinema Vox is open daily and showing all the latest films including some ski/mountainering movies like Nuit de la Glisse. At the moment they are showing some Oscar nominated films, like Lion and La La Land. All English spoken films will have French subtitles and there are French dubbed versions as well! Here is a full list of what’s showing now.