Bourg St Maurice and Chambery

The taxi ride down from Chapieux to Bourg was somewhat hair-raising. A typical winding alpine road where cars have to stop  to pass each other, with mountains on one side and precipice on the other, and our driver occasionally looking at the road while trying to connect to Internet on his phone. All ended well, he did find his doctor´s address and arranged for her to see Annika  more or less straight away, and we could soon pick up a bagful of medicines in a pharmacy.

Grande Rue, Bourg St. Maurice

Rochefort ruin, Bourg St Maurice

We did not get much information in the tourist office, but found a really interesting brochure that gave us ideas for the coming days - on doctor´s orders we were not to go to higher altitudes.Bourg, known since Roman times, has a nice centre with some 17th century town houses - our hotel The Savoyard was right on the Grande Rue -  outside the centre, it was mostly  large and expensive-looking family houses surrounded by gardens. All that is left of the Rochefort castle is a ruined tower - the castle was washed away by what now appears to be a harmless brook some 100 m distant.

Beaufort cheese being made

One of the local specialities is Beaufort cheese, a soft variant of Gruyere with a characteristic concave edge (said to facilitate roping the cheese wheels onto donkeys), and we went to see the plant. Fun to see, with open coppered vats, but fully automated filling of the large molds.

Musée de la Pomme, La Chal

There was supposed to be a church with worthwhile baroque furnishings in a village above Bourg, but when we got there it was closed, so the next goal was a Museum of the Apple in yet another village, La Chal. Charming village with largely authentic buildings, in stone and with open space under the roof. The museum turned out to be two tiny houses containing the ancient village fire engine, an apple press and some pictures, but quite charming, with a fruit orchard conserving the old varieties.

Our next target however, in the Vulmix village on the opposite site of the valley was an all out success. A small chapel with never restaured fresco paintings from the fifteenth century covering all of walls and ceiling, a comics style picturebook with Bayeux tapestry charm. One had to ask a Mme Besko to open the chapel and she gave a perfect explanation of the picture story, the quest of Aosta bishop Gratus for the head of St John Baptist (he found it in the well of Herod´s palace in Palestine, brought it to Rome and the grateful pope granted him St John´s jaw to take home; it is now the major relic in the Cathedral of Aosta).

Chapelle St Grat, Vulmix

The walks gave great views of the valley. We also ran across what at first appeared to be a plant having flowers of two different kinds and colours. On closer look one can see that the actual flower is yellow, but the top leaves have turned a vivid violet. On the net, there are a few similar pictures, but none gives the plant a name.

Bourg St Maurice from the Vulmix road

Salad Savoyarde

Tartiflette

In the evening we tasted i.a. Salade Savoyarde - with Beaufort, lardons and croutons, excellent but would have served as a main dish - and  Tartiflette, a potato gratin with Reblochon, no less nourishing.

Elephant Fountain, Chambery

There was no morning connection from Bourg to Geneva, so we decided to spend the night in Chambery. It turned out to be well worth visiting, a former capital of Savoy. The town´s best known sight is the elephant fountain, with four realistic lifesize elephant halves (it is said to be called Les quatre sans cul)
We had dinner in the town hall square which was hosting a folklore festival,  had a taste of another tasty savoyard speciality, a sausage called diot, served with polenta and red wine sauce, and walked around to see the ducal chateau and a few imposing buildings grouped around the Palais de Justice,  the art museum (former granary!) and Hôtel des Douanes.

Hôtel de Ville, Chambery

Diots au vin rouge

Chateau, Chambery

Musée des Beaux-Arts

Palais de Justice

Hôtel Clermont Mont Saint Jean
(Hôtel des Douanes)

Nice views continued on our train trip to Geneva.

Tour de Mt Blanc

In between two babysitting periods in Brussels, we intended to squeeze in a week´s hiking on the Tour du Mont Blanc.

Courmayeur

We chose to do the TMB in the nontraditional clockwise sense, starting from Courmayeur - the connection via Alpybus Geneve Airport -Chamonix and public bus Chamonix-Courmayeur was excellent, we got to Courmayeur at lunchtime and only planned a short walk to the nearest hut, Refugio le Randonneur.

Le Randonneur

The short walk through the woods turned out to have 800m elevation, and with the heat and the flies and the mosquitoes was not quite the dream start. We were alone in the refuge´s dortoir, a nicely furnished and well kept old house, and the family running the refuge and restaurant served excellent food, including homemade cake.

The first proper hike was along a ridge with wonderful views of Mte Bianco di Courmayeur massive to Arp Vielle, than down to the mouth of Miage Glacier (no ice as far as one could see) and along the Vallone de la Lex Blanche to Refugio Elisabetta. Easy pleasant walking, apart from a few landslides blocking the valley road, and a few snowfields covering the path in a few places higher up; we had good use of our Huang Shan walking sticks there. We got to see marmots quite close and chamois at a distance, and a profusion of flowers.

Refugio Elisabetta Soldini

The Elisabetta is quite strategically placed but can not be recommended. It was overcrowded-we had to wait until quite late for our turn at dinner (and they served half-cooked risotto). Particular warning for the dortoir - 24 people on 3 shelves above each other, only one working toilet, no hot water - and most of the ceiling and some of the walls covered by black mould!

Sunshine even on our third day, again an easy uphill walk, but we had forgotten how to pack for hiking, my backpack was overloaded and my shoulders started to ache. The small nature information hut of Casermetta was a welcome break, the terrace had information on geology, flora and fauna, and panaramatic pictures identifying all the peaks in view.

Casermetta terrace

Setting out of Elisabetta

Col de Seigne with Mt Blanc

Towards Les Chapieux

 The Colle dela Seigne pass - our highest altitude, 2510m - had wonderful views, our first view of Mt Blanc proper, all the imposing peaks along Lex Blanche and at the other side the mountains to the west.  

From the pass it was essentially downhill, after a while the valley opened up to show alpine farms with cattle, and the Mottetes and Ville de le Glaciers refuges a few miles away.  A surprising feature along the path was the very narrow and deep ditches or furrows created by running water.   

A pleasant walk along the valley floor took us to Auberge de la Nova in Les Chapieux. Again a nice place, and we had a delicious local dish there - cow´s cheeks.

Unfortunately, Annika´s ear inflammation, which was troubling from the start of the trip got so much worse by the morning that we had to break off the hike and take a taxi to a doctor in Bourg St Maurice.