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Personally I'd do an introduction day or two somewhere which covers reading avalanche reports, then have a few days in good weather on grade 1 and 2s practicing reading reports and conditions with a friend. After that, decide where you want to take it and get a guide or instructor to help with that.
It feels like a lot of mountain craft comes from a base level of knowledge then the rest is experience in different conditions which you get better at with time and paying attention to the surroundings.
Edited to add-The Chamonix course looks good for an introduction to mountaineering, but you might end up wanting to hang off an ice wall after 2 days which it won't give you. Equally that might not be for you.
rj-
Yes you make a good point. It's just which route to go to attain that base level. I felt a multi day course made it easy to block that time and complete, then take that knowledge forward. A day here or there would be harder to achieve right now. Let me check the syllabus again.
The other option is to wait for next winter and put the money towards a ski touring training week, with avalanche etc. I will likely ski tour mist of next winter, so perhaps more useful.
I feel climbing will be solely a means to movement, not an activity in its own right.
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I booked a 4 day acteryx academy intro to alpine climbing course, should get me started and go from there. If nothing else it'll be some fun and I can hire a guide for some days after to explore things I felt inclined towards.
skinny
That might be useful in the future, thanks for saying. I do learn by doing - it only took me two degree to work out that reading textbooks was mostly useless for me. Let me get through some initial hand holding and I'll see where the second step is.