Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 3

Friday, 5 July 2019

Day 3 started with a 7am wake-up call from a flock of sheep as they were hearded past our window through a town bottleneck. Some of them were wearing sheep-bells so it was quite the racket!

After breakfast downstairs, I went to buy our lunch supplies from the only shop in town - the goat's cheese shop.  Each day of the hike I carried our 2 baguettes and Jon carried the cheese and ham for lunch.  This strategy suited us really well as a) it was cheap and b) we didn't need to rely on coming across a Refuge or cafe along the way. At the goat shop in Les Chapieux I bought a large thing of freshly made goats cheese for about $5 which was a huge bargain and so delicious.  It turns out my bag is perfectly suited to baguette transport!

Then we set off up the hill.  The profile of the days' walk was much the same as day 2, only this time the Col would be in Italy!  First we had to trek up the valley - while lesser hikers whizzed past us in taxis to get higher up the valley before hiking.  After an hour or so they joined us on the trail and we promptly left them in our dust.  We also caught up to the sheep, so take that you noisy fleece wearing ovines!

After about 5 ks it started to get pretty steep. We had occasional switchbacks to make things easier. And occasional rest stops.

Three hours from starting we reached Italy, and the Col de la Seigne. I took this photo in Italy, while the rest of the family is in France:

And here we all are in Italy. This was the first time I had worn a jacket since we arrived in Europe.

Then it was down down down to the bus stop and the bus which would take us the 25 minutes in to Courmayeur.  This is a common option for TMB hikers as the overnight stop at Refuge Elisabetta (near the Col) is slightly too short a day for many people (13km), but to reach Courmayeur is a long 28 k. Our day ended up being about 15k of walking which was perfect.

We stopped for our delicious baguettes before the final 5k of descent. 

 To celebrate arriving in Italy we ate (well we partially ate) these table sized Italian pizzas. Yum. 

Then we watched the soccer semi final from the comfort of the giant hotel bed. (The hotel was conveniently in Courmayeur and not somewhere else).

Whilst we still had a bit left to go to get back to Les Houches in France I was very sad that we had finished the main part of our TMB hike. It was absolutely amazing and fantastic and the weather was great. I'd like to do the rest of it sometime - ideally before my knees become old and creaky as it was a pretty tough up and down walk for anyone with dodgy knees.