Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 1

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Day one went completely seamlessly and everything went perfectly and there were certainly no problems with the accommodation I booked. So really there's nothing more to tell.  The end.

I said 'The End'.  You can all move along now.

 Off you go.  Go and warm yourself next to the fire. There's really nothing to see here.

Oh OK. Day one went completely seamlessly to lunchtime. After a long wait in a queue filled with other day 1 TMB chumps like us, we took the cable car from Les Houches to the top of some ridge then joined the TMB trail as it wound it's way mostly downhill towards Les Contamines.  The walking was a mix a trail, gravel road, and normal road. We went through lots of little villages and the edges of tiny towns. It took a bit of getting used to as we were all expecting more of an alpine trail experience. Instead we had to keep our eye on the intersections for the signs so we didn't end up in a car park!

It was pretty hot but there were quite a few water fountains along the way. We would have jumped in the fountain too like this dog if we could have.

The scenery was beautiful, but not spectacular. That was to come.

We made good progress and stopped for lunch with about 3 kms to go before Les Contamines where I'd booked the hotel called 'Gai Soleil' as recommended by many blog authors before me.

As we packed up lunch we put the exact location of the hotel into google maps (so we could find it amongst the small township).  Strangely, no matter which way we entered it, google kept saying we had 17 ks to go, which made absolutely no sense.  Until we realised that there are multiple Gai Soleil hotels, and I'd booked the one in a town called Megeve in a parallel valley  - either a long long way around, or a long long way up and then down.  Neither of these sounded do-able so we sat down again and considered our options. Walking there was out - it was too far.   We couldn't call a taxi from were we were either, and we weren't convinced we'd be able to get one from Les Contamines as it was a very small town.  So in the end we decided to go in the opposite direction and walk towards the much larger town of St-Gervais-Le-Bain, which was 7 kms away and sort of half way to Megeve.  We figured once we got close enough we could get a taxi.  We did check the busses - nothing served the town I'd booked the hotel in, and the train would go there from  St-Gervais but it went through once a day, inconveniently at midnight.  This is us working out what to do..

So with everyone in less than great spirits we headed towards St Gervais.  It was hot, we were tired, and we still weren't sure how things were going to work out. Luckily our map showed us the nice tracks we could take along the way, so even though there were a few sections of less than pleasant road walking it wasn't too bad for most of it.

About 4 ks out of St Gervais and on the main road we tried to call a taxi, but none of the 4 companies Jon rang were able to help. Well one guy was if we were happy to wait until the evening (nah). We were near the bus stop but the schedule pinned up on the wall said we'd missed it by a few minutes and the next one was in 2 hours. We rang the hotel who couldn't help us figure out how to get there - so with all options exhausted we decided to abandon my original booking and just find a place in St-Gervais - the town we were walking to.  Booking.com* came to our rescue and 5 minutes out of town we booked a place to stay which was right in the heart of the town and turned out to be awesome - and the perfect place to stop after a traumatic afternoon.  This is us finally arriving into town. The hotellier came out to greet us as he'd just received the booking.

And it turned out St Gervais was a really pretty place with great views and lots of cafes and an old church which was built to replace a really old church.

This was our new hotel and the view out the window:

After a nice dinner in one of the cafes we went back to our room and lay in bed listening to a thunderstorm which finally broke the stinking hot weather. All the while thanking our lucky stars we didn't end up sleeping in a stable somewhere. 

So it wasn't the day we were expecting, and hilariously our final destination was um.. right up the road from Les Houches (our starting point), but it turned out ok. Thank god for the internet.  And thank god no-one in the family broke down once we realised the horrible truth - everyone was pretty stoic really**

* I shouldn't praise Booking.com too much though, while I was trying to work out how I had been so stupid I searched up the 'Gai Soleil' hotel in Les Contamines and sure enough the only one which appeared was the one in Megeve (which I booked) . It was also not at all obvious until you looked at the fine print that it was 6.5 ks away from Les Contamines (as the crow flies, if the crow flies straight up a massive 1000m hill and down again). sheesh. 

** I tried making the kids sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for their continued care and financial support however they have point blank refused, citing something about legal obligations to dependents  under 16 or some such rubbish. I'll keep working on them.