TRAIL: TOUR DU MONT BLANC – DAY 7

DAY SEVEN – July 9
Quite a leisurely hike except for the ascent into Champex; walked along a river, by quirky wooden houses and extravagant garden gnome displays, through a forest of carved wooded creatures, and ended with beer and fondue on a patio overlooking Lac de Champex in a rainstorm with the British Army.

​The guide book says this is the easiest day of the whole hike and that’s a pretty accurate assessment. What today lacked in spectacular scenery, it made up for in ‘strange things to see on the trail.’

The day was filled with quirky findings – from houses, to gnomes, to chicken coups, to an enchanted forests of wood carved creatures – which made an otherwise leisurely hike quite interesting.

Shortly after leaving Ferret we made a pit stop in La Fouly – the map said there was a public toilet (again, with the toilets!) and a cafe as we were in our perpetual search for good coffee.

Found both the toilet and the coffee (not in the same place) and while enjoying our coffee we had the immense pleasure of meeting the happiest, furriest dog on the planet. Nothing like a little puppy love to make you smile.

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Fully caffeinated, we headed back to the trail. The next stretch takes you through a camp ground.

Tip: our new friends from Israel and Utah stayed at the camp ground in La Fouly that night. They said it was a great camp ground and that it had really good showers.

Then you follow a dirt road until it turns into a forest trail.

​The trail parallels a river, which is part of a hydro dam project (you’ll see several warning signs to stay away from the river’s edge). It’s not the most scenic part of the trail (compared to the scenery we’ve seen) but still quite gorgeous by any standards:

It wouldn’t be a day on the TMB without a mild panic-attack-inducing gorgeous cliffside section. This one even had a handy rope to hold onto but it’s hard to do that while you’ve got a death grip on your hiking poles

We emerged from the forest trail into Praz de Fort. This picturesque, straight-out-of-a-postcard village is so…. Swiss. Imagine what you think a small Swiss village to looked like from years ago and you get Praz de Fort as well as the nearby by Les Arlaches..

The two towns are villages of wooden buildings, some of which you wonder how they are still standing. And some are so full of character you want to meet the person who lives there. 

Tip: Praz de Fort has a cafe (and a nice clean restroom).

On our way out of town we passed the cutest chicken coup. Even chicken houses in Switzerland had flower window boxes!

As we entered Les Arlaches, we saw the garden of gnomes and other fairy creatures. I’m not entirely sure what to say about them except, wow. So many gnomes! Is this a Swiss thing? In any case, it was adorable. I just hope they get someplace warm for winter as gnome man or woman should be out in the cold (couldn’t help myself!)

​Next up in the ‘strange things you’ll see on the trail today’ was the beautiful forest section on the 1.5 hour ascent into Champex. This section of trail is called the Sentier des Champignons along Charlotte the Marmot’s trail.

As you walk along you come across these wooden carvings, which make a great opportunity to use that excuse “stopping to take a picture”, in case you’re huffing and puffing on the ascent.
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Here’s an example of some of the carved woodland creatures you’ll find:

There was something enchanting about this trail. It was just starting to rain lightly but it was warm and we were still quite sheltered.

And then suddenly we emerged back into civilization as we entered Champex. It hadn’t occured to me that Champex was at a higher elevation than where we were just a few hours earlier. Champex is on a lake. I had mistakenly assumed that a lake would be at a lower elevation. I was wrong and very surprised to find a lake at 1,500 meters above sea level. I kept wondering why we were hiking uphill. Lesson of the day!

To say we were kind of excited on the approach to Champex was an understatement. We were craving pizza and the prospect of eating a pizza is a remarkable motivation to finish that last little section.
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FYI – when you see this sign you’re close but not there yet.

Champex is a lovely village. Lots of places to stay and eat. Speaking of eating, our pizza craving would have to wait as we discovered that restaurants in Champex don’t serve food in the afternoon between lunch and dinner. It’s amazing how quickly one can go from hungry to hangry when you’re told there’s nothing to eat.

So onto plan B. Might as well have a beer! We found ourselves a nice little spot on a terrace under an umbrella overlooking the lake. The view wasn’t so bad:

It was here that we met the British Army, or a least a small group of soldiers who were, apparently, on a wilderness training thing and thought the TMB would be a good place to do that.

It started to rain heavily so we moved inside the restaurant. We weren’t going anywhere until the rain stopped we could eat dinner so to pass the time the soldiers schooled us on how to use a compass. Don’t ask me to repeat anything I learned though because beer(s).

The rain finally stopped and the sun came out once again! Back to the terrace for us. At this point I was getting quite ravenous and so we ordered a fondue – when in Switzerland! (Pizza will have to wait until another day).

Our new Army comrades gave us a ride to our accommodation (don’t worry – they had a designated driver!).

We had a really hard time booking something in Champex through the usual ways and instead we booked a charming Bed & Breakfast on Airbnb called La Grange. We loved stayed here and the hostess is very attentive and welcoming. Good breakfast – great coffee! It’s located across the street from Gite Abri, just out of town a bit, which also happened to the the camp ground where the British Army was staying. I kind of feel like we had the better sleep.

And that’s a wrap on day 7!
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Next: Day 8
Go back:  Days 5 & 6