Last September my wife and I stayed at the Hotel La Savoyarde http://www.lasavoyarde.net/standard.asp?l=e&id=1 which then cost 106 euros/night. I had requested a superior room and although the room itself was rather basic, we did have a sliding glass door onto the back yard and a nice view across the valley. The hotel had a restaurant but because it seemed that only one other room was occupied we opted to eat in town. One caveat: the hotel's up a steep hill behind the town, so walking back after dinner (a large one with much grape liquid included) was not fun.

Chamonix is a pretty small town so walking to the Aiguille du Midi cable car is easy. While we were in town the summit was never clear so we thought we'd have to leave disappointed, then we heard that it was clear the day after we left so we drove all the way back just to see the view. It's spectacular!

If you're looking for a place to eat in Chamonix, I strongly recommend a restaurant named Le Monchu (04 50 53 04 80 - either get there early or make a reservation) It's in the center of town, next to the casino. If you like cheese, have the raclette. They bring a vertical-charcoal-hibachi type device to your table so you can melt the cheese at your own rate. In the US, if a restaurant tried to use one of those, everyone from the fire marshal, the board of health, the air quality board to the society for the prevention of cruelty to cheese would be clamoring to shut the place down. Of course they'd have to find it through all the cigarette smoke. Seriously though - it's a great restaurant.

Regards, Al Sonoma, CA, USA