What we did not mention about our awesome accommodation in a Champex was that when we checked in our friendly French hostess said “I know you will like the shower”. Oh my! Like it …we loved the jacuzzi shower and plan to instal one in our future home. We had a 16km walk the next day so lights were out by 11pm.

Up at 6:15am, another shower🤗 breakfast of croissant, butter, homemade jam, cheese, ham and great coffee, a few photos and off we go to begin stage 8 of our trip.

We spent the first 15 minutes walking through Champex, passing a beautiful lake. The first couple of kilometers were pretty flat with about a 80m decent ( 1340m) taking us through shady and wooded areas but soon we started our ascend of 700m on very steep and varied terrains – loose gravel, small and large rocks (see video😳) streams, etc.- to Bovine(1987m.)

The effort was so worth it. The panoramic views were amazing and there we see a cafe🤓🤓. We took off our packs sit at a table to note that it is table #9 and enjoyed a cup of latte in a wonderful outdoor area surrounded with 50 plus cows with bells (love the sound.)

Earlier I had mentioned rooming with three young Indians. We(they) were so happy yo meet up again in Bovine. One of the young men (one on the right in the photo) is a Baliwood movie producer. He asked to take a photo of us(using his very fancy camera.). He told us that he wants to keep the picture in his desk to look at when he is our age to remind himself that one is never too old to do what he/she sets their mind to😊

After an hour rest it was time to continue, first a 50m ascend and then a continuous 500m
very steep decent through varied but mainly rocky terrains.

After 16km walk we arrive at Col De La Forclaz. Earlier we had heard that the traveling exhibit of Picasso’s latest work is on display in Matigny, a 45 minute bus ride away and, loving Picasso’s work, we had decided to take a day off to see the exhibit.

We had an hour before the bus arrives so, not having much for lunch, we decided to have dinner at a cafe on the road right across the bus stop. The table,in the shade, that we had chose was too small so our waitress moved us to a bigger table and moved an umbrella to provide shade. We were so surprised to note that the table was #19🤓🤓

The bus came just a couple of minutes after the posted schedule, not knowing the bus routes and it’s distance to the hotel we got off where the google map indicated that we were going the wrong direction, walked about 10 minutes, found the hotel, checked in, nice hot shower, check emails, wash cloths(a nightly task as we only have 2 sets of clothing (wear one and carry one) and bed.