DAY 21: Friday June 22nd - Refuge Peclet Polset to Pralognan:
Walk: 15k, 5hrs: Blue skies, 0°C to 18°C
Accommodation: Hotel Lodge Epicea Pralognan
Magic through window of refuge
Refuge Peclet Polset - hotel-like
Goodbye Peclet Polset
What is there to say - Magical!!!!
Snow capped alps, blue skies, mountain tracks - today's good
We could stop for Beaufort cheese
Let's keep on moving
Many day walkers in Vanoise Park
They park and walk
Blue skies, snow on alps, me and rhododendrons and grassy meadows
There's been an avalanche here
I'll check the map - but who cares
Where we go tomorrow - up and up
Hotel Epicea Lodge - home tonight
Another magical day with blue skies, snow capped alps and a downhill track to Pralognan. It's an easy day - so we have time for two morning coffees and time to stop and stare at the magic of the alps.
We awake at 6am - like everyone else in the dorm - one up, all up. No shower, and it doesn't take long to pack - fold the sleeping sheet, put on warm clothes and down to the dining room. Breakfast is defreezed bread, jam, hot tea and the biggest jar of Nutella I’ve ever seen – at 20kg it’s bigger than a large paint tin. The day starts with blue skies but while having breakfast a mist rolls in and after grabbing our backpacks ready to leave, we all sit around waiting for the mist to lift. It's supposed to be a fine day so worth the wait - especially since half the group are headed for the Col de Chaviere, our climb yesterday.
1hr later at 8am, the sun emerges, and we all leave but it's still 0°C - so we have to unpack and add layers of over pants and rain jackets. We say goodbye to Peclet Polset and within 10 minutes, the sun is fully out and the temperature shoots to 10°C so we have to stop and strip off again. It's just another magical day in the mountains. The Vanoise National Park is so high, wild and rugged. We have all day to do walk 15k downhill so there's plenty of time to stop and stare. We also encounter a tide of day walkers of all ages - many in the 70's and 80's - walking up the track as we walk down.
We stop for a Jet Boiled coffee behind some rocks in view of the nice looking Refuge du Roc de la Peche. We'll remember that one for next time but it's not really convenient - too in-between anything, as is the next refuge Refuge Prioux a little further down the track. The coffee is nice and we take our time to look around - again. The track continues down and down following the torrent and 2 hrs later we stop for a cup of coffee - because we can - and it's only a few k down the road to Pralognan.
Descending through pine forests to the hot flat road, we arrive in Pralognan, a ski village in winter and hiking centre in summer. There's lots of people around. I picked out the Epicea Hotel Lodge because it was nearest to the GR55. It took a while to find but is really nice - we have a view of the mountains in two directions. We have lunch in our room, shower, and take all our washing downstairs to the laundry - a Miele washing machine - saves washing in a bathroom basin and wringing my fingers to the bone.
It's such a nice afternoon - make that beautiful - we stroll down town through the village - very touristy, and buy a few bits and pieces - cheese. tomatoes and Meusli, at the local Sherpa shop - a basic grocery store. We visit a photo exhibition of before and after photos of many of the villages around here - many of them from 1900. Then back to the hotel to collect our washing and string it in the sun on deck chairs.
Time for a drink at the bar - a bottle of the local red - not quite rough. Then dinner as part of our demi pension. On the way down to the village I saw a sign above our hotel about a Fondu Specialty. As we sip our wine I shudder at the thought of a repeat of our experience at the Hotel Belvedere in 2005 on the Tour de Mont Blanc - they had a fondu special as part of a demi pension - 2 kg of hot melted cheese with 2 loaves of diced stale bread – and that was it. So when the manager comes and explains Cheese Fondu is their specialty, we cringe and quickly decide that we’ll ask to pay for a salad as an extra - but we’re really surprised when she says that the salad is a standard inclusion. She also chats in broken English and sign language about the 4 Americans who stayed there last night having arrived soaked, cold and dripping wet after being caught in the storm yesterday afternoon while we were sitting pretty in Refuge Peclet Ponset.
In fact the fondu is the nicest we have ever had, and then we are asked if we would like another salad, maybe the vibes carried. We do please. Then a dessert of custard tart and berries. We leave as stuffed pigs and we haven't had a hard day, but, I tell myself, tomorrow is. We head up to our room and catch up on a few emails because, then bed. Really looking forward to tomorrow.