Thursday, September 13th
Congratulations to Sue and Nancy for completing Le Tour du Mont Blanc today! They debated which route to take and ended up
hiking the low route to Les Houches to complete the Tour. This was still over a 12 mile/20 km day! They stayed in the Gite Michel Fagot again where Nancy had left a box for checking her hiking
poles onto the plane. Note - Don't try to put them in your carry on or you may lose them to the airport security agents!
 |
| Nancy on the trail and then celebrating the completion of Le Tour! |
|
 |
| Photos by Sue Priest |
|
Nancy took a photo of a wild bee hotel that I've added here as many places we stayed had smaller versions of these. In fact both of the apartments we rented in Bern had small bee hotels.
 |
| Large hotel for the wild bees! Photo by Nancy Brian |
Meanwhile, Colleen and I caught a morning bus to Chamonix and then the
Ouibus to Geneva. We found our way to our Airbnb, took very needed showers, and then headed out to buy groceries. We couldn’t find a grocery store but managed to
get some pasta and sauce in an
Avec store attached to a gas station nearby. Then we couldn’t figure out how to use the
induction stove! I eventually cooked the pasta by letting it soak in boiling
water, from the hot pot, draining it and adding more boiling water four times until it was
cooked. I warmed up the sauce in a pan over the boiling water as well. American ingenuity in Geneva!
The apartment came complete with a darling kitten and a view all the way to the Jet, a famous plume of water in Lac Lemac (Lake Geneva).
 |
| The Jet with the Mont Blanc Massif in the background |
 |
| Derik, the owner of the Airbnb, had just gotten a darling kitten that gave us heart failure by walking on the railing of the 7th floor balcony! |
|
|
Day 13 Summary for Sue and Nancy: Auberge La Boerne to Les Houches
(France); 12.44 mi/20 km; 811’/247 m up; 2109’/643 m down; 7 hrs on trail
Summary of Total TMB:
93.1 miles/150
km; 24893 feet / 7587 m UP; 26656 feet / 8124 m DOWN; 70.5 hours on the trail
