We have commenced THE adventure of our lifetime. In 2017, Zak and I set a goal to hike Tour du Mont Blanc in the summer of 2023. Our thinking was that it would be the last summer before Zoe begins her post high school plans and it would be the perfect graduation gift for both girls. Since they both passed their junior and freshman years with flying colors, we’re confident they’ll finish high school and are willing to give them their gift a bit early.
Mont Blanc is the tallest mountain in the Alps and the hike is 110 miles around the summit. We’ll hike though three counties and do over 30,000 feet of gain. We’re planning on completely it in 11 days, staying in chalets, hotels, and rufugios along the route. It’s going to be epic. After the hike we have the goal of eating our way through France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Our flight on Air Portugal left O’Hare at 10:40 pm and we had a quick layover in Lisbon. At 5:30 we landed in Geneva and walked to our hotel. Brushing my teeth had never felt so good. We showered and walked the half hour to Cafe du Soleil, one of the original fondue places in Geneva. We love fondue from Fondue Stube in Chicago, but this was totally different. The only fondue they served was cheese, no oil for meats and vegetables or chocolate. We dined on a huge pot of the cheese, a plate of cured meats, and 500 dL of wine. (And here I had always told students that they’ll never use deciliters in the real world.) For dessert we shared a tarte and profriteroles. The perfect start to the trip!
Today we had about six hours to walk around Geneva. We spent most of that time in Old Town, admiring the ancient buildings and cobblestone roads. We made our way to Lake Geneva and took note of the giant squirt of a fountain and the swans. We took a self guided tour of St. Pierre Cathedral, the oldest in Switzerland that opened in 1150! Quaint is really the best word to describe Geneva. Everything just seems so old in a really neat way. (Although we did hear someone say it’s dingy compared to Chamonix. Now I’m anxious to get there.) Of course we found chocolate croissants and lattes for breakfast. Ellie has declared that fondue, chocolate croissants, and potatoes are her favorite foods.
We’re now on a bus to Chamonix where we’ll spend all day tomorrow checking it out. After that we’ll spend a day in Les Houches and start the hike on Saturday!
I knew we’d have to depend on the French Zoe has learned over the past 5 years to communicate, but I didn’t realize how quickly that would be put to the test. She so easily slips into the language when talking to store clerks, servers, and anyone else. I’m wildly impressed and proud!
We’re going to try to blog this trip, but know we won’t have reliable access to wifi for most of the hike.
Just so everyone doesn’t think we immediately got really drunk I feel like I should clarify that we had 5 dl of wine, not 500 😂