Tuesday 9th September: Sunny morning, overcast afternoon, rain late afternoon: 8°C to 20°C
Argentiere to Chamonix: 10.5k: 11am to 2pm: 3hrs easy peasy
Good Bye Hotel La Couronne
Drying the socks and jocks
Coffee in park, close to Chamonix
Chamonix streets are deserted
Our Hotel Le Morgane
The Bossons Glacier behind
A storm rolls down the valley
Picnic dinner of salmon and salad
Today was almost a real day off, strolling10.5k along L'Arve River from Argentiere to Chamonix. Relaxing, planning the next 10 day stage from Chamonix to Geneva and planning where to stay and how far to walk each day. Shopping in the Snell Sports Store in Chamonix, my old hunting ground, buying a picnic dinner and lunches for the next 3 days and watching the rain pour down from our Hotel room late in the afternoon.
Sleeping in has not been the norm for 3 weeks, but today we finish our Zermatt to Chamonix walk and there's only a 10k stroll down the valley along the L'Arve River, so there's no need to get up til 8am. Time to catch up on emails and Facetime, rearrange the washing we did last night, and think about the next 10 day stage along the GR5 to Lake Geneva. It's sunny outside after the storm last night with lightning and thunder close by.
At 9am we dawdle down to breakfast. It's a beautiful spread of everything but the really hot tea and fresh French bread make it nice to be back in France again. There's no rush, but neither are we hungry after eating a 6 course picnic dinner in our room late last night following our marathon walk yesterday. The Hotel was only 102 Euro, on average 50% cheaper than the hotels in Switzerland and the staff were really helpful. It was on the main road in an out of Argentiere but then Argentiere is a one street village anyway and all the hotels were on this road. And there were no cars through the night, just the odd few in the morning.
It's 11am when we finally leave. Our washing isn't quite dry and the best place to get the undies and socks dry is to hang the on the tie cords on the back pack. It's peaceful along the rushing L'Arve and the streams flowing into it from the mountains on either side are clean, clear and fast flowing after last nights storm. There's a nice park on the outskirts of Chamonix where we stop for a coffee - clearly a favourite with hikers as the park seats were full.
We'd like to check out our route for tomorrow as we hope to walk up 1000 m from Chamonix to PlanPraz, depending on weather. The GR5 we want to walk and pick up where we left off two years ago, is at the top of the mountains. It would be nice to link the GR5 to the Zermatt to Chamonix walks, but we'll see. The path is well signposted, and starts about 1k out of Chamonix. We made a mental note of where to start in case that's what we decide to do. Then it's on to Chamonix.
The streets are almost deserted at 2pm when we arrive. In previous years, we've visited Chamonix in the peak summer season on June and July but in early September, all French schools have resumed after the summer holidays, and the tourists won't flood back until the ski season at the end of the year. It's easy enough to find our Hotel Le Morgane, on the east side of L'Arve and just 400 metres south of the Chamonix centre. We've already read on booking.com that the room won't be ready til 4pm, which makes sense since we didn't have to leave our Argentiere Hotel until 11.30am. Typically the French eat late and sleep late. But the staff are very helpful, and we can change our shoes, use the WiFi booking refuges and hotels ahead before stashing the backpacks in the store room and heading downtown Chamonix for a few hours.
It's still deserted, and my favourite Sports Store, Snells is also empty. The handle on Ian's trekking pole has come loose and he's already had one lot of glue come unstuck so they might be able to help. The young guy behind the counter is very helpful and is amused when I tell him we'd bought it at this store 9 years ago in 2005 - not that we expected it to be under warranty, but more to let him know we were loyal customers.
He kindly offered to try some different glue, so we left it there to pick up later. Time to check out the Casino - another chain of supermarkets in France. The shop is just around the corner and it's worth checking out what they have - cold beer for example - before we return later to buy a picnic dinner and lunches for 3 days. The outside of the store has racks of fruit and vegetables on display and the pigeons are busy eating grapes - very tolerant are the French, and as usual, the owners take their dogs into any store.
It's 4pm and time to head back to the hotel as our room will be ready by now. It's starting to rain. And yes, our room is ready and it's magnificent - all modern with a big kingsize bed, LCD TV, and even a jug for tea and coffee. It was probably such a good deal because it's off season in the French Alps. We're no sooner in and settled, when the storm rolls down the valley and the rain pelts down - almost sleet like. Within minutes the L'Arve across from our room is gushing. It rains for 2 hrs, but we need to go back to get Ian's trekking pole and do our shopping before 7pm so after borrowing 2 umbrellas from the hotel, off we go.
The Snell's assistant has done a great job of glueing the handle back on the pole. We also buy a gas can for the next leg of the walk, and I buy a super light weight poncho, more as a back pack cover for light drizzle, as my big poncho is such a pain to get in and out for light rain. Next is the Casino Supermarket - France is at least 30% cheaper than Switzerland. We leave with smoked salmon, dried hams, tomatoes, mace, cheeses, butter, French bread and of course two cold beers, a half bottle of red and some chocolate. Time to celebrate the end of our Zermatt to Chamonix walk of 236k and average of almost 20k per day.
The beer is really cold, and it goes well with the smoked salmon and salad. There's a fridge in the room and we re-arrange their mini-bar to fit our stuff in. Time to relax and read up on tomorrow.