August 21

 August 21 - Les Hoches

An early start to the day - by choice.  We wanted to go for a wee hike and the weather forecast was better early in the day.  So - up at 6:40, breakfast at 7, and we were on the trail sometime after 8.  Surprise, though - there were only 3 of us setting out this morning.  Gary tweaked his back tying up his shoes so he spent the day in/near his bed.  

The hike up to the Statue of Christ-Roi............

........... was mostly in the trees, but nice to stretch the legs.  Some limited views on the way up, but it had pretty much clouded over by the time we got up there.  Views from the statue over to Mont Blanc were supposed to be superb, but - maybe on another day.






Visibility improved momentarily before we headed up to the Parc Animaluer de Merlet.  Busy place with lots of families going in.  We chose not to, so headed back down.  Goal accomplished, though.  Our outing was about 550m of up and down, so a good bit of exercise.  Not hot, but humid, so we all worked up a bit of a sweat.



Back "home" for a shower and then back into Chamonix for the afternoon.  We located the train station for tomorrow's outing, found the (closed for renovations) Alpine Museum, which was close to the Passerelle Place du Mont Blanc (a picturesque covered wooden bridge spanning the waters of the river l'Arve adorned with colourful flowers and featuring a small dome on its roof), poked our heads in Saint Michel Church (originally built in 1119 by the Benedictine order) to shelter from the rain, found but chose to skip the Crystal Museum, then found a coffee/tea shop with a covered patio to wait out the worst of the continuing rain for an hour or more.  






We found a few statues along the way............




And I came as close as I ever will to celebrating under the UTMB arch.


Pretty low key day.  Several visits to see the patient (Gary), dinner, and several hours trying to get onto our non-existent internet!  

Hope the weather improves tomorrow as it is supposed to.  

Comments

  1. Lynn CAugust 26, 2025 at 8:59 AM

    Joe did the exact same thing as Gary, not that long ago... He took some Robax (muscle-relaxant aimed at the back) and it helped a LOT!! Hope Gary feels better before you have to set out!!!

    ReplyDelete

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