Advertisement
Published: September 7th 2007
Bonjour from France! I will be struggling to write as the letters are in different places on the key board! Well we started our trip with more waiting as the planes in both Vancouver and Amsterdam had a technical problem whatever that means. Luckily we were able to make up time in the air! We were delighted with the meal and beverages supplied. Arriving in Geneva our driver was waiting to wisk us off to Chamonix France. Our excitement was halted when we realized that no one had stamped our passports...were we in Europe illegally??? An American fellow assured us that he too had not been stamped. I guess that we are tracked through the computer now. So sad to not have any stamps saying we are here.
We drove to out of Switzerland to our fourth country of the day and arrived in Chamonix, and were dropped at the front door of Hotel Chamonix...thanks Rick Steves for the recommendation. We were in the shadow of Mount Blanc and overwhelmed by its mass. It was a cute little wood paneled, red carpet little place with a little balcony looking out onto the center square. We will be staying here on our way back too. We got settled and went to explore and find something to eat. We realized the importance of reading signs when we entered what we thought was a pizza place that turned out to be far too fancy for us; We left quickly and then entered the actual pizza place and struggled to communicate in French. We also struggled to breath as the people at the next table enjoyed their cigarettes while we ate...Fun!
I, Alicia have discovered my love for bells, as I almost scream every time they ring, cow or church haha. Because we only had about 3 hours sleep on the plane and the 9 hour time difference we were mixed up the first night and were awake at 3 AM for several hours with no where to go! The next morning we set out to find the trail head. We bused from Chamonix to Les Houches and got off one stop to late of course. We figured we needed to warm up anyways. We bought some groceries for breakfast and the trail. As we were stnading on the side of the road eating breakfast we were approached by an Australian girl named Lindsay who saw our Canadian flags and knew we would speak her language. She is a 29 year old who is currently on a 2 year trip and is very experienced with hiking and travelling. We spent most of the days walk with her and her positive outlook was exactly what we needed. Sadly she was a little faster than us even with her 60 pound pack and she pushed on to camp at a further site.
There are no words to describe what we have seen on our first day.... we will try. Because the weather was spectacular, cool but not a cloud in the sky, the higher alternative route was what we chose. We worked our way up to Col de Voza that had a view down the Chamonix valley. At the base of a huge glacier we crossed a rickety suspension bridge and then began another climb to our highest point of the day at over 2000 m the Col de Tricot. We didn't stay long as the summit was also a favorite spot of the sheep and smelled like a feed lot. The view that we came upon at the top of the ridge opened our eyes to the many ranges that encircle this part of Mont Blanc! amazing!
So how were the bodies holding up..................ummm.............well we feel great today but the final descent with the extra weight of our packs and the 7 hours behind us was enough. A long slow descent led us to the Refuge de Miage. We took off our boots and packs and enjoyed a beer in the sunshine gazing up at the glacier. Relaxed at the picnic tables, Kelley had a warm solar shower, we unloaded into our dorm room of ten beds and we prepared for our first hut dinner. (Aunty B, you would have laughed at the toilet as it was a standing spot with foot pads only in which you hovered above a hole.) French was the only language spoken and understood but we muddled through. Dinner started with salad, fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the garden, then a huge potatoe filled omlette, followed by amazing cheeses. We thought that this had to be dessert and were very full, but laughed as he started to bring out fruit crepes with whipped cream and a shot of liqeure. We turned down the dessert however the shot warmed our bellies.
Our lack of sleep caught up to us so at 8:30 we headed to bed. In our dorm was a couple from Les Houches and two single older french men. We climbed into our sleep sacks and had a great sleep. We got up early, had breakfast consisting of bread, jams, honey and wonderful coffee. We set out for Les Contamine which is where we are now. We booked our hut for tonight and settled into the tourism office to catch up with emails and the blog. We are feeling great and still smiling that we are actually here and in such a beautiful part of the world. Looks like the weather is going to remain nice.
Miss you all. We were unable to post pictures this time but we will soon. Got to go climb some more mountains.
Love, Alicia and Kelley
ADDITION
We ended the above entry quickly as the tourist office closed for lunch from 12-2 We decided to wait for them to re-open so had a nice lunch and sat in the sun. Unfortunately the Mac computer will not allow us to add pictures....we will try again when we reach the next village a few days. We just wanted to say hi to you all, assure you we are safe and happy and savoring the beauty of every moment....so far....so amazing!!!
Bye for now.....
luv K&A
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.033s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Brenda
non-member comment
Excellent!!!
Can't believed I missed another call...thanks for it anyway. Loved your first entry from "over there"! Sounds like all is well, going well, eating well and finally a good cup of coffee!!!! I'm glad you got to do the higher alititude route. Lova lova, B the race is tomorrow Sat...very high humidity yesterday/today but it will cool overnight!!