After a relatively smooth flight, we arrived in Geneva, Switzerland at about 7:30 am. We had some beautiful views of the rising sun as well as the lush green valley surrounding Geneva.
Since 99% of what we brought for the trip was in our two checked backpacks, we were so happy to finally see them in the luggage carousel — ours were two of the last to come down the chute, so a thought crossed our minds that we might be winging it for a night :-)
We took an hour-long shuttle to Les Houches, France where we are staying in a charming inn, Le Saint Antoine. One of the people on the shuttle was a younger woman who was planning to hike Stage One of the Tour Du Mont Blanc (18 km) today after she got dropped off at her hotel at 11 am. We are so glad we have the luxury of a day to acclimate before we start hiking!
Key to our acclimating is trying to stay up today until at least 9 pm., so we put our backpacks on our bed so we wouldn't be tempted to lay down ourselves.
Here is our charming inn and below is the spectacular scene from our balcony.
We took a bus to Chamonix and Greg did some "carbohydrate loading" by testing out a local beer. After lunch, we walked around beautiful Chamonix enjoying the beautiful scenery and mountain vistas.
We bought a Tour du Mont Blanc hiking map and are now spending time figuring out our hike for Stage One. On many of the stages, there are two options — one more challenging and one somewhat easier. Our first day, we have 11.2 miles — there is a lower route and a "high route" where you do a lot more climbing up (for fantastic views) and a lot more descending. We will be thinking about which to take, but haven't made any decisions yet. :-)
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