Alpine meadow

First proper hiking day today. The weather forecast was poor, but morning better than afternoon, so Lorenzo proposed an easy walk up a valley at the base of the Mont Blanc massif. Not far away, but it took us a good hour to drive there, along winding mountain roads with extensive roadworks to repair land slip and flood damage from last autumn.

The walk was lovely and well within my capabilities. Plus the weather was better than predicted and perfect for walking: not too hot, a light breeze. We saw a ton of pretty alpine flowers and two very unperturbed chamois. Periodically it clouded over, but the first spots of rain fell just as we arrived back at the van. Stats: 9 km, 160 m climbing, 4 hours including an hour of stops

Lorenzo drove us to a “picnic park” on the basis that it had tables sheltered under trees. We were shocked to read a notice stating that we were expected to pay 2 euros for a table, plus 1 euro per person. That’s a total of 9 euros to sit at a grotty wooden table eating our own food, not only that but the toilet block was locked. Luckily the kiosk was too, so we didn’t have to pay anyone. So we enjoyed a leisurely picnic washed down with mountain water from a drinking fountain: the water is lovely here.

Afterwards we took a 20-minute walk up to a splendid waterfall that was well worth the trip (extra). There’s a tremendous amount of water in the rivers as there was a late snowfall which is now melting. Back in the village we had a very leisurely coffee outside.

A good day out. We had time to chill for half an hour at the hotel before Lorenzo dropped us in Aosta: he went off to meet a friend from Abruzzo while the rest of us had dinner at a very traditional restaurant. Everyone else’s choices involved dollops of polenta, but I was suffering a carb overload so I enjoyed a salad featuring fontina, cured beef, apple, and walnuts. Very refreshing.