French Alps 7th-16th of June 2013

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The places visited and hiked are touristy with vacation houses booming as well, but high tourist season was still to come, so i had wonderful hikes, even discovering gems of local small farms, preserved in natural state, kind of frozen in time, cozy villages, charming towns. Hike near Samoens was most scenic, but other hikes had highest mountain views in the background and each place and mountain was full of beauty and wonder, small discoveries and feelings. It was my first time in the Alps, basically in Chamonix valley or close by and it is the highest Alps in Europe, but my first impression was that they had different feel to me than volcanic young mountains. It was short trip, but my legs felt it had enough and there was much more trails to hike, that it was good we left, because only after my ego calmed, i felt fully what a nice trip i had as everything was so perfect, including people i met.

Ok, following tradition to describe hikes in more detail, here it goes..

The first day of hike on 8th of June in Passy

We woke up at a nice host's Peter's house in the upper Passy town and after breakfast after 10 am I with my 2 companions- Jovita and Gintaras drove a car some ways up for a ~ 3 or 4 hour hike. The 3 of us from parking lot at Lou Pacheran looked at high mountain scenery across Chamonix valley and people jumping from cliff with parachutes and then headed to the trail, which most likely was Chemin Rural de Passy for higher altitude . Gintaras wanted to gain altitude as acclimatization before Mont Blanc. Trail was not so crowded, just one big group of wild life watchers. We passed small village and then more snow started, we sat for lunch at some hut, finding bare rocks among snow and after short walking the trail with companions, i decided to go back towards the village, where my eyes caught a small mountain without snow. It was the only one I wished to climb and so i did, agreeing to meet with my companions in an hour or so. My mountain was so steep that i went on all 4 sometimes and no trail nor people, they seemed far bellow and small. I was happy being back to my own style of hiking 😊 even some scary moments and plenty of impressions and adrenalin for the first time after loong time since the last hike. Had a relaxed, kind of meditation time almost at the top. This trip i discovered another thing i liked often to do while hiked in Alps by myself - while resting, i hung my head upside down while laying on some rock and viewed mountain scenery around from that position. Its interesting and different. Took pics of first amazing wild flowers of the mountains, it was early spring time in nature higher up. On the way back , when we all met and continued together a wish came true - we witnessed a small avalanche falling. During hike we heard cracking sounds in the mountains now and then and Gintaras said, it's probably ice braking off the mountains. Impressive to witness such forces of nature. Another half day running errands in town, including shopping and meeting a group Gintaras will join next day for climbing Mont Blanc. Was nice to see scenery around Chamonix town which is set in more narrow end of the valley and high mountains closer surrounding the place. We were back at Peter's around 9pm, had just herbal tea and a short chat. The first good day was over..

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Photos

From the road in Switzerland
After 2 days driving, covering more than 2000 km, finally i saw this..

First day views of tall mountains around
I mean we arrived at our destination :)