Plan Praz to Les Houches

So I was up on Plan Praz Sunday morning in order to fill in one more gap in our 2005 Tour du Mont Blanc: the final day, La Flegeres to Les Houches, one of the longer days on the Tour, which weather had forced us off. We had already done La Flegeres to Plan Praz, more than once, so I resolved to climb Brevent, which towers over Plan Praz, and then walk on to the end of the TMB (and the beginning, if you're going counter-clockwise), Les Houches. It turned out to be a 17 mile day all-told (some more walking in Chamonix), with a 6,000+ foot gain/loss, but was actually fulfilling. Of course, Vicki reminds me that we didn't do the stretch to Champex, taking the bus like everyone else does through the boring, warm Swiss valley. But maybe I'll do it too someday. The bilberry (what they call huckleberries hereabouts) picking at Champex was our best ever.

Chamonix from Brevent

From Brevent you get continuous full frontal views of the French side of Mt. Blanc 
and especially the Bossons Glacier

Up closer

Summit dome

The parapentes are much closer

Looking back to Brevent

The trail down, a 4,500 foot descent to Les Houches

Of course the beautiful thing about hiking in the Alps is that you are never more 
than a couple miles from the next glass of biere or vin chaud--here, for example, 
at the Refuge Bellachat (I could add to the list of beautiful things: e.g., no horses, 
no dogs, no trash, no bugs, no predators, no jerks, etc.)

On the occasional rough patch there are iron rails and, 
in this one spot, these interesting little footpads

Excellent signage; even I couldn't get lost

At last, 4PM, Les Houches; "our quest is at an end"; the TI; I had a cold one
down the road; unfortunately it was a cold red wine (!), a matter of some
cognitive dissonance; and then caught the bus back to Chamonix

Chamonix Scenes

So Saturday (July 2) we did our usual Saturday Chamonix thing: walk around, shop, go to the market, but a poulet roti and relevant fixins, and have a Saturday afternoon Chamonix repast/pique-nique. Alas, I had bought so much Italian wine we couldn't have the usual Beaujolais or Rhone wine. But Valpolicella is good too.

Chamonix market, not the best around, but a favorite

Nice setting too

Parasails always over-head

Speaking of which, I was up on Plan Praz the next morning, 
at the launch site

Where new landing approach instructions have been posted (they're doing 
landscaping work on the city's sports field)

What the launch site looks like on a beautiful Sunday morning in July

Here's how you do it: start running, spread your wings, and

Voila, you're in the air, hoping for a thermal to carry you higher (you're already 
3,000 feet above the valley)

Of course there are on view plenty of other summer 
sports to pursue

Ditto

In Chamonix Again

So we found our place again in the parking lot of the Aiguille du Midi Telephyrique and settled in for another brief stay in the historic capital of alpinism, a place we always find attractive and interesting, Chamonix. On Friday, July 1, I did another hike, taking the bus up to the Col du Montets and walking from the col back down to La Flegere and the telephyrique there back to the valley. Walking "the col back down" entailed first a two hour set of switchbacks rising 2000 feet! But it was another brief stretch of the Tour du Mont Blanc that weather forced us off in 2005.

Back in Chamonix, where some nice fresco

work has been going on

On all my hikes in the Alps, I have never seen an ibex, except

at great distance, fleeing

But here, above the Col du Montets, in the Parc Naturelle,

there was a whole flock, obviously unconcerned with human

presence

Including this big guy

OK, they're just mountain goats, but any sort of larger wild

mammal is unusual in Europe; you should see the sensation

among hikers caused by the sight of a marmot!

Oh yes, there was some alpine scenery around

Mt. Blanc, from near La Flegere

Chamonix Aiguilles

Aiguille du Midi, across the valley

Grandes Jorasses





Out our window Friday evening



Arrivaderci, Italia

So this Thursday morning, June 30th, we'll cruise through the Mont Blanc tunnel, departing Courmayeur to spend a few days in Chamonix before heading further west, then north. Except for April, we have been in Italy since February and have loved it. The geographic and scenic and cultural diversities of the country surpass any other place I know. Italy has more World Heritage Sites than any other country--far more--and justifiably so. We have found it all endlessly interesting, diverse, exciting, moving. And that's just the historical and cultural sites and institutions. They are on the whole exceedingly well managed. The people have been friendly and good to us. The camping arrangements have been manageable, even off-season, but often excellent. The roads and driving are fine, once you get used to the local customs. The weather could have been a bit warmer in the south and a bit cooler in the north, but that's what you get traveling in February/March and then May/June. And the food and wine and the coffee...just superb. We have been here long enough to see the seasonal nature of the cuisine as well as its many regional diversities. (It would be nice if you could buy something other than Italian at the supermercato; but, then, Italian is the international comfort food, and it can be of very high quality too). Let's just say Italy has moved to the top of my most-favored nation list, for all those reasons and more.

Arrivaderci! No fotos!

And On To Courmayeur

We finished Milan and drove on late in the afternoon, stopping at a little town called Cavaglia, over-nighting in its large mercato parking lot. Alas, we noted upon leaving there was a sign on the outskirts of town that said no camping. Oh well.

Cavaglia is remarkable, totally remarkable, for having a

stone circle next to its civic center; this has got to be recent

and artificial; but no less impressive

Up the road a bit, at Pont St. Martin perhaps, a beautiful old

Roman bridge

And thus we are back at Courmayeur, a favorite Italian town,

at the very foot of Monte Bianco, at our favorite restaurant

there, Le Vieux Pommier, enjoying our favorite totally

decadent Alpine meal, the crepes Mt. Blanc (prosciutto

rolled into crepes, drowning in a soup/sauce of fontina cheese)

Followed by veal topped by prosciutto topped by melted

fontina (frites for Vicki, cheesy polenta for me); the vino

rosso really helps to cut through though all the white stuff;

all followed by a  sort of berry-ish creme brulee thing that I

always forget to shoot

So, this time in Courmayeur, we found the mercato parking

lot, a few hundred meters from the centro, and stayed there

four nights, reading, planning, researching, lazing; I did a

couple of hikes, more or less repeating hikes I have done

before in this area; first, up the Val Veny, toward France,

stopping at the Lac du Miage and its 10k moraine; above,

one of the remnants of the lake, a pot-hole at the lateral of

the giant moraine; I sat there for a while, watching the

continuing trickle of scree into the bottomless pot-hole: a

reminder that this giant thing is alive and moving; I didn't

venture further 

Above now, on the balcony overlooking, some of the Miage

Glacier moraine, Mt. Blanc proper on the right

And, a bit higher on the balcony, working my way back

toward Courmayeur, more of the moraine and the Innominata

Face of Mt. Blanc; don't be deceived: it looks like rock, but

it's all ice underneath, digging out a huge canyon of the future

The Grandes Jorasses, further on the massif; Le Geant on the

left-most

In the distance, from a refuge on the hike, one of Italy's many

great mountains, Gran Paradiso

Another day, another hike, another balcony, up the Val Ferret,

toward Switzerland: looking across at the Grandes Jorasses

glaciers

And, from my favorite Refugio Walter Bonatti,

another look at Monte Bianco

More Milan and La Scala

Our day in Milan ended with a few more sights and La Scala, arguably the greatest of all opera houses. Arguably.

13th century city hall, in the merchants' piazza

Milan street scene

In the Galleria, adjoinging the Piazza della

Duomo; nice 19th century stuff; high-end

shops

Still in the Galleria; Naples has something

very similar, but Naples is a depressed area

and there are practically no shops; not even a
McDonald's

Statue of Leonardo

La Scala

In  the La Scala Museum, a recent bust of

Arturo Toscanini, the great conductor and

interpreter (a foremost interpreter of Wagner

too); practically synonymous with La Scala

Verdi; synonymous with La Scala

My hero gets a bust here too, and his works

are regularly performed; but not as regularly

as those of Verdi, Pucini, Rossini, et al.

Tours of the theatre are not permitted when a rehearsal or

performance is underway; they were rehearsing that Friday

afternoon, but I did sneak into a box and steal this one shot;

in the summer time they do opera school performances, not

the big dogs; of course, La Scala opera school would trump
just about anything else

What I would have seen on the tour; it's an 18th century

theatre, actually smaller than what one might imagine; very
bourgeois; Wagner would not have approved...

The Museum is very well done, with all the

usual posters, scores, libretti, costumes,

musical instruments, relics, etc. Not to be
missed by the operatically-inclined