We've just finished our last hiking day in the Alps and we're both toast. Both yesterday morning and today, we walked down into the little village, just below Club Med and took the gondola up the mountain. Yesterday, we made it up to 2185m. Can't tell you where we started, maybe I'll do the math later. But it was awesome. One of my favorite moments of the trip so far was seeing a valley far below where we were hiking, full of grazing cows. Free range of course... and each had a cow bell around its neck. It was the most beautiful sound. When I get home, I'm going to buy a wind chime full of cow bells. We passed a couple of herds of cows on our trek up the mountain and something that struck me was that they all looked totally healthy. Their eyes were clear and bright and not bothered by flies.
So after we made it as far as we wanted,we headed back down and hit the gondola again to return to the village, where we stopped at a little restaurant, Le Perce Neige, for some Marguarita Pizza and a beer. The guy inside didn't speak English but it was pretty easy to order. We just pointed :) The rest of the day was spent getting some pics on our fb timelines, sitting outside on the deck drinking coffee and beer and getting showered and dressed for fondue. We ran into the Chief De Village, who for those of you not associated with Club Med, runs the show at each resort. We actually asked him the way to the specialty restaurant and didn't realize it was him until I asked Bryan if he could have been the Chief. Point for Chris. Fondue was good, but it was total carb and fat overload and I have done meat fondue and dessert fondue and was kind of hoping for that too. Oh well, glad we did it.
Last night was the weekly kids performance and it was a huge production. There must have been better than 50 kids of all ages on stage throughout the show, having rehearsed all week. The crowd was rowdier than at any other time here. The French certainly do not act like Americans... first, Bryan was quick to inform (warn?) me that they aren't big day drinkers, which is a steep departure from what I'm used to at Club Med. I've been to Cancun, Ixtapa and Turks and Caicos which are all centered around alcohol. I guess this one is centered around children, at least this week. But the show was hilarious and super cute. I got pics and video, all of which will get put on YouTube when we get back.
Since this isn't a party club, there's one large lounge area and bar in front of the stage. That's it. This is the last night the resort is open until mid December so we'll see how many people are around tonight.
Today we took the gondola up again and headed a different direction, around the side of the mountain to check out the ravines and waterfalls, and just be surrounded by green... Our intention was to not be on the mountain as long today but when we got back to the gondola, it was a little after noon and apparently the gondola operators take a siesta between noon and 2, just like everyone else. So we figured, how long could it take to just hike back down? 2 1/2 hours. Downhill. Murder on the knees and shins. We are now lying in bed doing our blogging and pics. I am in no way ready to stand up. But I'm impressed with my hiking skills today.
Tonight we'll scout out the laundry situation. Its 10 euros for a load and we figured we might as well take care of some clothes before we head out tomorrow for Opio, just in case its a lot pricier there. We also have to plot our route for tomorrow.
Next blog will be in 2 or 3 days, from Provence :)
Au revoir!
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