Tour Du Mont Blanc

Its hard to believe we've been home for over 6 weeks and I'm just getting around to posting this!  Russ and I left the Friday after Jacob's open house  and flew to Geneva, Switzerland where we met our dear friends, the Parkins. We were able to attend church there and the members were so warm and welcoming. We had the missionaries translate for us, since none of us spoke French. One of the members insisted on driving us back to our hotel so we didn't have to pay for a taxi. Switzerland is one of the most expensive places in the world right now. 

Later in the day a shuttle picked us up and drove us to Chamonix, France where our trek began the next morning. Its a beautiful village with snow topped mountains surrounding it. Its a tourist town, but cheaper than Switzerland!

 I love all the murals painted on the buildings.

 We had gelato several times on our trip:)

Here we are at the Bellevue cable car where we began our trek.

Mont-Blanc is in the middle of the red line and is 105 miles around. It sits in the middle of France, Italy & Switzerland. Most people do it in 10 days. We didn't want to take that long so we did 7 days and about 85 miles. There was a few spots we took a shuttle or a bus. We were very blessed weather wise & only had 2 days of rain off and on. 

There were lots of Swiss cows with huge bells around their necks 

that you could hear from very far away.

 The little "dot" down the mountain is where we had lunch. As we were hiking up the Col de Bonhomme we ran into a flock of 2,000 sheep.

 We stopped at the refuge de la Croix for a hot chocolate and potty break. As we left the clouds had moved in even more and it began to rain for our final trek that day to Les Chapeaux. We were all very wet, along with our packs and had to empty everything out & find places for things to dry. It just added more fun & excitement to our hike:) 

 I could eat lunch with a view like this EVERY day!!

We crossed over the boarder of France into Italy & stayed in Courmayeur. 

It was a lovely place & we had some great Italian food.

This was my favorite bathroom we had. Notice there is a bidet in the bathroom. I had a lot of dirty clothes to wash out when we arrived & I washed them in the sink and then rinsed them in the bidet, it worked great! The other good thing was the sun was shinning & we had a balcony & our clothes dried really fast:)

 Overlooking Courmayeur, Italy

This is Victoria our guide. She is from Great Britian, single & has one little boy.

 She had SO much energy & would go go go!! She could talk non stop,

 but all of us grew to love her & she was a great guide!

 Mont Blanc range

The building you can see on the left is where we spent the night....talk about a great view!! Its called the Bonatti Refuge, named after a famous Italian climber.

We had twin beds here & got one token for a shower that literally lasted about 2 minutes!! We got here early enough we all sat on my bed and watched a movie on Russ' iPad. Your dinner is included with your stay at the refuges & you eat family style. We sat next to 5 really nice men from Israel.

 Grand Col Ferret, which crosses the border back into Switzerland. I never get tired of looking at beautiful mountains!

Another GREAT lunch view!!

Rich & Russ

Russ & Me with Switzerland behind us.

 I skipped a day because it was our other "bad" weather day. It was so cloudy that you could barely see the trail in front of you. We kept hearing cow bells & finally came across some on the trail. We stopped at a little place for lunch that had loads of character. Rich & I both had an omelet & Russ & Lynette had some "local" dish. Both of their stomachs hurt the rest of the day. Most of our hiking was in the woods so we didn't miss some of the most spectacular scenery. This was our hotel in Champex where we were fortunate to dry things out again. After we showered we walked around this beautiful village & found a great bakery & lots of beautiful scenery.

Delicious pastries

 In the morning we heard all this noise & the cows were being herded right down the middle of the street with their cow bells ringing loud!

One of the pictures hanging in our hotel. Glad I didn't have to do this!

 This was our last day of hiking and probably the hardest, but MOST rewarding. It was a very steep ascent & we even had to climb some ladders bolted into the rock where they couldn't put a trail. 

Lac (lake) Blanc

 At the top with my BEST hiking partner:)

 Lynette and Rich

 WOW is all I can say!!

This is at the end of our trek in France again. It truly was so beautiful its hard to put into words. Between Russ and I we took over 2,000 pictures so it was hard to know which ones to post. I feel so blessed to have the health & means to go on these hikes. I love the hymn, "How Great Thou Art." It describes a little how I feel when I see God's awesome creations. After our trek we toured around Switzerland, France & Germany for 8 days, but that will have to be in Part 2 of our journey.