Tuesday 9th September: Sunny morning, overcast afternoon, rain late afternoon: 8°C to 20°C
Argentiere to Chamonix: 10.5k: 11am to 2pm: 3hrs easy peasy
Accommodation: Hotel Le Morgane
Good Bye Hotel La Couronne
Drying the socks and jocks
Coffee in park, close to Chamonix
Chamonix streets are deserted
Our Hotel Le Morgane
The Bossons Glacier behind
A storm rolls down the valley
Picnic dinner of salmon and salad
Today was almost a day off, strolling 10.5k along L'Arve River from Argentiere to Chamonix. We went to Snell’s Sports Store, bought lunches for 3 days and watched the rain from our room in the afternoon.
No need to get up til 8am then Facetime. It's sunny today after the thunderous storms last night. At 9am we dawdle down to breakfast. The beautiful spread of hot tea and fresh French bread makes it nice to be back in France again. We’re not hungry after a 6 course picnic dinner last night. Hotel La Couronne cost 102 Euro, 50% cheaper than hotels in Switzerland. On the main road, but there were no cars last night.
It's 11am when we leave. Our washing isn't dry so we hang socks on the back pack. It's peaceful along the torrent L'Arve and the streams gushing into it are clean, clear and fast flowing after last night’s storm. After 2 hrs, we stop at a park on the outskirts of Chamonix for coffee. We’ve decided to continue on the GR5 to Geneva over the next week, so we check where we’ll start the 1000 m climb from Chamonix. One k before Chamonix we see the track signposted to Plan Praz and make a mental note for tomorrow.
We arrive in Chamonix at 2pm and the streets are almost deserted. In early September, French schools resume after the summer holidays and tourists won't flood back until the ski season at the end of the year. It's easy to find our Hotel Le Morgane on the east side of L'Arve and just 400 metres south of Chamonix centre. We've already seen on booking.com that the room won't be ready til 4pm. But the staff are very helpful and we can change our shoes, use the WiFi to book refuges and hotels ahead before stashing our backpacks in the store room and heading downtown to Chamonix centre for a few hours.
My favourite Sports Store, Snells, is empty. The handle on Ian's trekking pole has come loose and he's had one lot of glue come unstuck, and they might be able to re-glue it. The young guy behind the counter is very helpful and is amused when I tell him we'd bought these Leki poles at this store 9 years ago in 2005 - not that we expected it to be under warranty, but more to let him know we were loyal customers.
He kindly offered to try some different glue, so we left it there to pick up later. We check out the Casino - a chain of supermarkets in France. The shop is just around the corner and it's worth finding out what they have - cold beer for example - before we return later to buy a picnic dinner and lunches for 3 days. The outside of the store has racks of fruit and vegetables on display and the pigeons are busy eating the grapes - very tolerant are the French, and it’s common for owners take their dogs into any store.
It's 4pm when we head back to the hotel. It's starting to rain. Our room is ready and it's magnificent - all modern with a kingsize bed, LCD TV, and a jug for tea and coffee. It was probably such a good deal because it's now off season. We're no sooner in when a storm rolls in and rain buckets down outside. Within minutes, L'Arve is a gushing torrent. It rains for 2 hrs, but we need to go back to get Ian's pole and do our shopping before 7pm . So after borrowing 2 umbrellas from the hotel, off we go in the rain.
The Snell's assistant has done a great job glueing the cork handle back on the pole. We also buy a gas can for the next leg of the walk, and I buy a super light weight poncho, more as a back pack cover for light drizzle, as my big poncho is a pain to get out just for light rain. Next stop is the Casino Supermarket - France groceries are at least 30% cheaper than Switzerland. We leave with smoked salmon, dried hams, tomatoes, mace, cheeses, butter, French bread, two cold beers, a half bottle of red and chocolate. Time to celebrate the end of our Zermatt to Chamonix walk of 236k at an average of almost 20k per day.
The beer is really cold, and it goes well with the smoked salmon and salad. There's a fridge and we re-arrange their mini-bar to fit in our stuff. Time to relax and read up on tomorrow before bed at 9pm.