Mont Blanc
Planning a walk is much more difficult than a bike ride in Europe. You can't hke to a high mountain hut only to find it's full, then trek another 10k to the next hut hoping there's room. But you can if you're cycling. So each step of the path needs to be meticulously planned - not necessarily booked - but alternative accommodation places sourced long before we get there. Booking.com has been a Godsend. In previous years, we've had to ring ahead in muddled French trying to make a booking. But now it's all on line and most places have internet access - even some mountain huts.
The trek is in 3 sections.
1. Tour de Monte Rosa - this 150k circuit around the Monte Rosa Massiff begins and ends in Zermatt, with the northern part in Switzerland and the southern part in Italy.
2. Zermatt to Chamonix - this 170k walk, also known as the Walker's high Route, begins in Zermatt and ends in Chamonix. Most of this trek is in the Swiss Alps, crossing into Franceon the last 2 days.
3. Chamonix to Geneva - this 180k trek comprises part of the GR5 from Chamonix to Lake Geneva, followed by a 5 day walk along the edge of the Lake to Geneva.
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We departed Brisbane at 12.45pm on Sunday with Etihad to Singapore, then changed to Air France to Paris before connecting to our Geneva flight. We like Air France is because their times suit perfectly with minimum disruption, arriving in Paris at 8am ready to start the day. Their business class seats lay down to an angled flat bed - great for putting your feet up but not so good when you continually slide down feet first. We're delayed in Paris an hour - someone was a "no show" and the crew needed to find and remove their baggage for security reasons. Geneva is a warm 20deg C when we arrive, initially stressing when our blue and white stripey bags containing our back packs fail to turn up. We don't have a Plan B, so we're relieved when they're the last to finally roll off the conveyor belt half and hour later.