Tour de Mont Blanc

Far, far above, piercing the infinite sky,
Mont Blanc appears,—still, snowy, and serene—
Its subject mountains their unearthly forms
Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains,
They crowned him long ago
On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,
With a diadem of snow.
Around his waist are forests braced,
The Avalanche in his hand;
But ere it fall, that thundering ball
Must pause for my command.
The Glacier’s cold and restless mass
Moves onward day by day;
But I am he who bids it pass,
Or with its ice delay.
I am the spirit of the place,
Could make the mountain bow
And quiver to his cavern’d base–
And what with me wouldst Thou?

—Lord Byron, Manfred, 1816–1817

Here’s a little post with pictures from a van trip around the Alps of France, Italy and Switzerland, circling the Mont Blanc. We visited Annecy, Chamonix, Courmayeur, Aosta, Martigny, Lausanne, Abondance, and Yvoire.

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