PROLOG Richard’s: Once Missy set her retirement date, of August 31, 2015, our travel plans were set in motion. But first we needed to see about her bunion surgery and what if any limitations she may have from that. After six months or so she had a clean bill of health and we started making plans.…

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…

See description of the photos, below. We got to Hotel Edelweiss in La Fouly in time to get a shower before dinner. We were given our spots in the dorm. Seven mattresses on the floor we took two. Down stairs to wait for dinner found our assigned seats. Turned out we were seated next to…

After a night and day’s rest in Courmayeur we realized that we were not able to secure a place to stay until we reach the end of stage 6 (La Fouly) so we had to make alternative plans. We decided to skip stage 5 and do a partial roundtrip day hike from Challet Val Ferret…

After another restful night we got up early had bread, jam, Nuttela and coffee. Finished packing and off we went at 7:30. Today there is a chance of rain. We have the choice of two trails. The main TMB that would take us back to 2500m that is supposed to be a gorgeous hike. The…

We needed to spend the night in Bourg-Saint Mauriceas since there were no beds in Les Chapieux. A 60 Euro taxi ride got us there. We found a pleasant hotel and had a good nights rest. We had a leisurely morning, had a nice lunch at a café by the side of the road. Back…

Wow! What a day. We got up and out the door at 8:30 and started in stage 2 of the tour: http://montblanctreks.com.au/stage-2-les-contamines-les-chapieux/ Beautiful start of the day. Weather report said maybe a little rain at noon but it said the same yesterday and no rain. Off we went. Stopped at a famous church of Norte…

    Didn’t sleep well as I was little anxious about the start of our hike. I knew what to expect when I hike in the USA. Choose a trail, pack your gear, find a campsite to set up your tent. Repeat. The TMB is different. Choose a trail variant, call ahead to find a…

Got our detailed map, found the spot where we catch the tram to take us to the top of the mountain ( a 45 minute walk from the trailhead), got our room for the first night.  We will spend the rest of today packing our backpacks, getting a good dinner (food is very good and…

We arrived in Geneva early this morning, went through passport control very quickly, collected our luggage and met up with Grant, our shuttle driver, and after a mostly scenic ride we arrived at our hotel in the charming village of Chamonix. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamonix The street of this quaint town were filled with hundreds of very healthy…