Wednesday, September 12th
The next morning we hiked down the upper end of the long Chamonix to Le Tour and then to Montroc where we bumped into Colleen
checking out the train schedule! It was only 10 am so we had the rest of the day
together. She had done fine but hadn't been able to do much with her sore knee...
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| Sue and Nancy in front of the darling Auberge La Boerne |
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| The owners of the Auberge had flowers everywhere at their hut and house! |
We hiked the few minutes up to the Auberge and left our
packs and then headed down again to catch the bus to Chamonix. We changed to
another bus in Chamonix to take us to the gondola to Aiguille du Midi. It
turned out the second part of this gondola ride was closed as well – so we were
thwarted on both ends of the gondola route that takes you all the way up and
over the Mont Blanc massif!
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| View from the gondola up the valley we walked down yesterday and this morning |
We got our tickets to Aiguille du Plan and got off
for a view and a lunch where we could watch some of the French army practicing
medical maneuvers. I also took a 17 second movie of a paraglider launching off
the Plan!
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| 17 second movie of a paraglider launching off the Aiguille du Plan |
We returned, walked back to the Place du Mont Blanc to catch our bus
to Montroc, and saw the famous statue of the two mountaineers pointing up at
Mont Blanc. It was commissioned from a number of different alpine clubs
including the Boston Alpine Club! Note that the first successful summit was in 1786 by Jacques Balmat and Michel Gabriel Paccard, and financed by Swiss geologist, physicist, alpinist and aristocrat Horace Benedict de Saussure who climbed it the following year and conducted scientific experiments. You will hear more about Saussure in a later blog post!
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| Statue of Balmat and Saussure pointing up to Mt. Blanc - Photo by Nancy Brian |
I also went into a pharmacy to get Colleen
some more ibuprofen and found they had an Advil gel – that we don’t get in the
US. I bought that as well since it wasn’t very expensive so she could see if
that helped the pain at all. I got off the bus in Argentiere (the town below
Montroc) so I could check the outdoor stores I had seen there for webbing to
create a belt for the top of my pack to make a more comfortable daypack from
it. I ended up spending 4 euros on a belt of black webbing that already had a
buckle. Note - It is worth carrying a light daypack or string bag for non-backpacking adventures!
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| Beautiful Chamonix - Photo on left by Nancy Brian with Mont Blanc in the background; Photo on right shows the opposite view of this beautiful walkway along the Arve river |
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It only took less than 20 minutes to walk up the trail to
our Auberge and then I moved into a tight room with a bed right between Nancy
and Colleen on the floor. I took a shower in an area that was smaller than a
phone booth and then went down to the patio to join the others for our
sundowners. Dinner was a green salad and then homemade square pieces of pasta
with very tender and tasty chicken. Dessert was homemade applesauce
with a cookie on top.
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| Notice the old cow doors from the converted barn that now houses Auberge La Boerne! Photo by Sue Priest |
We paid our bills (at the table in the above photo) and I bought a TMB neck gaiter (buff) and then we went
to bed. I didn’t have the best night but I didn’t worry since Colleen and I had
all our plans made and would be off the trail and in Geneva the next day, while Sue and Nancy completed the Tour.
Day 12 Summary: Gite d’Alpage Charamillon to Auberge La Boerne (France); 2.92
mi/4.7 km; 88’/29 m up; 1768’/539 m down; 2 hrs on trail
