Here’s Jenny’s diary record for Stage 9:
Thursday 30 August 2007
Woke this morning only to be trapped in our beds by the party of French people above us (getting dressed and packing). Made it to breakfast in time though. Left the Refuge at 8.15, after Jenny made several attempts to go to the loo, only to be disturbed each time by impatient people. Grrrr.
Richard has mislaid a walking pole, but apart from that all is well. Weather still misty but at least it isn't raining.
Slight change of plan to the original route down the mule track as we are led (by Martin) down a more challenging (for me, Jenny) path down.
Quite dramatic scenery around us: very atmospheric with all the mist and cloud.
Meet some mules and a lovely horse on the way down.
Then it's into quite thick cloud and a rather slippery path. Nobody falls over though.
Eventually we rejoin the mule track and continue along the originally planned route which includes hot chocolate and coffees at Les Fontanettes Refuge, where we join the GR55 route.
We then wend our way down to Pralognan, which is rather sweet - although the piped soft rock music (Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody) in the village square is a little strange.
Check in to Epecia Lodge Hotel and quickly freshen up before we head back into the village for lunch. We find a charming little restaurant with good food - Sue and Jenny have goat's cheese salad, Martin a 'walkers plate' (meat, not the best choice), Andrew an omelette, and Richard became almost ecstatic when his dish of eggs, bacon and potatoes arrived. As it was our day off we succumbed to alcohol - beer, kirsche and cider (not all at once).
Some postcard buying and exploring the village before we go back to the hotel to rest - except mountain goat Sue who sprints up to the waterfall to check out a Via Ferrata route.
All meet again at 6.30 to find somewhere for a drink and to eat.
An Regal Savoyard restaurant has 'Savoire' dishes so we choose this one. We are all quite pleased with our choices except 'poor Sue' whose choice of 'tête de veaux' really does turn out to be the head of a cow (in globby lumps). Luckily Jenny's dish of salmon tartlette is so huge she shares it with Sue. Two bottles of red Savoire wine later and we are all ready to retire to our comfy hotel.
Jenny
Last night's refuge - a big one, but we had a crowded room with several 'poncho' clad groups drying out. The French don't seem to recognise that it rains here, and they use €5 ponchos.
The breakfast was poor - just a bit of dried bread and jam, and coffee from a poorly attended machine.
En route to Pralognan, our route is definitely better than GR55. We meet a man from Liverpool, that's all, who has extended a business trip to Courcheval.
The Table d'Orientation above Pralognan gives fine views despite the cloud, and an ibex sculpture stands over the northern end of the village.
Martin
[Stats: leave 8.15; 10.30 to 11.10 - coffee at Fontanettes; 11.40 Pralognan = 2 hours 45 mins walking, 7.0 km with 50 metres ascent.]
(Anquet: 7 km, 125 m ascent)
Note: This entry follows some posted back in April. Given my current ‘light exercise following hernia operation’ regime, it seems appropriate, rather than offer ‘heatwave on the canal’ postings, to ‘fill in’ with the rest of the Vanoise postings. To see all the postings from this trip, click here. Enjoy!
1 comment:
A bit of nostalgia again for me. My Tour of the Vanoise was in 2001. My photos are from film camera at the time and now in an album as prints but not scanned onto the computer. Here is a Dropbox link to my journal, typed up from a pencil written log kept during the walk.
Hope you can read the pdf file.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r55l2pv0dk0n6y9/TourVanoiseEdited6.18%20copy.%20copy.pdf?dl=0
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