Tour du Mont Blanc 3

Finally, it had come, our first day of the walk. It was already quite hot in the morning, and we left our fusty hotel room to walk up the hill to the the telepherique Plan Praz in Chamonix after a quick stop at the boulangerie - a great start to a long mountain day.

We watched some people zig-zag up the maybe 1,000 meters of ascent below us, which was probably taking them 1-2 hours, whereas we zipped it up in 5 minutes in the cable car. From Plan Praz we then had to walk(!) up a few more hundred meters further to the next cable car station at the summit of Brevent. The sun was shining and it was cool up here and all quite pleasant. We stayed for a coffee and a wee, looking down on those lazy tourists who had all come by cable car, not like us serious walkers!

We moved on swiftly and had a delightful ridge walk for a while until it went downhill again. And further downhill. And then a bit steeper. And on and on it went until my thighs started to tremble. And it just wouldn’t end. I think we walked down 1,500 meters on this first day, and my knee started to complain probably after the first 1,000.

When we finally hobbled into Les Houches, we found that a) our accommodation was at the other end of the town, but b) that it was much nicer than expected! I’m ashamed to say that I threw a bit of a hissy fit at check-in when asked for my ID because my passport was at the bottom of my rucksack, and I chucked the contents of my bag on the floor with an attitude, but once we saw our room I was very happy indeed.

Dinner was served in the courtyard, with swallows happily flying low and leaving shit traces on the walls. I had the best Cesar’s salad I’d ever had, then steak, and pudding just wouldn’t fit after that.

First day - up on Brevent, baguette in the bag, knees still in tip top shape