Sunday, July 16, 2006

France Chamonix Day 8

I set an alarm for 7:30 a.m. and with some struggle dragged myself out of bed for a run. I ran for 30 minutes along the Arve River. It is the first time I have run since last Saturday.

We had breakfast in the hotel on a deck along the river. The plan for the day was to take a hike. After some debate the previous night, we decided to hike on the Le Petite Bacon Sud Trail and hike to the La Floria Chalet. The hike was about 4.75 miles round trip with a vertical climb of almost 1,500 feet. The view from the chalet was great and the cold drinks and a tomato salad made for a great break at the halfway point. It was about a two and a half hour round trip not counting the stop at the chalet.

After hiking back down, Sharon decided to ride the Le Brevent lift. She stopped at the midpoint at Planpraz and took a few pictures and then rode the lift to the top. She commented about how baize the Europeans are about heights. Groups of the people were walking to the edge of a shear cliff without a guard rail to enjoy the view.

While Sharon was riding the lift, Jack and I rode a luge. They have two different half mile long concrete banked courses. We rode each course once and then headed back to the hotel.

We wandered the town a little and did some shopping. Jack bought a relief map of the area; it is will be interesting to see if it survives the trip home.

We had a drink on the terrace of the hotel overlooking the river and then wandered through some new parts of the town looking for some place to have dinner. We ended up at Le Monchu. We had a dish for two called Raclette for dinner. Essentially, they brought out a block of cheese and some coals. You melted the block of cheese, scrapped off the block with a knife and ate it with some meat and vegetables. Like the night before, it was more of a novelty than anything else, but Jack enjoyed the process.

During dinner, we both felt like we were ready to move on to other parts of France.

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