Chamonix with Kids: Aiguille du Midi & Mer de Glace, Chamonix, France

From the dizzying heights of the Aiguille du Midi to the ancient ice of the Mer de Glace, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc delivers some of the most breathtaking mountain experiences in Europe - and yes, you can do it all with kids.

early in the morning on 10 August 2022, our youngest was spread-eagled against the railing of the Pas dans le Vide - a glass-floored cube bolted to the side of the Aiguille du Midi at 3,818 metres - refusing, at first, to look down at the kilometre of empty air between his boots and the Bossons Glacier. Our eldest, four years older, had walked straight across without blinking. The cable car from Chamonix had left the valley at just after early in the morning that morning; twenty minutes and 2,800 vertical metres later we were on a metal platform staring at the east face of Mont-Blanc, with cirrus clouds drifting past the antenna tower above us.

This guide is the ten-day version of what worked for our family of four (children nine and thirteen) during a French-Alps road trip from 7 to 19 August 2022. What follows is the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc section - the Aiguille du Midi, the Mer de Glace, Le Brévent, and the quieter corners we found when we needed to drop altitude for the kids: Les Praz chapel, the Arve riverbank, Saint-Gervais square. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).