Champex and its Lac

The afternoon of the bovine route ended with an easy stroll down the road to a lovely sunny campsite. It did feel quite strange to be walking on tarmac though. On the way there were opportunities for yet more refreshments at a shop cum cafe, where several people stopped for a pistachio cornetto. This sounded rather more exciting than the usual vanilla or strawberry, but we'd done enough snacking for one day, and had one of Ben's delicious camp meals to look forward to, so we passed on the ice cream and concentrated on the rather lifelike wood carvings instead ...

... and took the opportunity to get a bit of climbing practice in.

The next morning started with some walking on the flat - quite unusual for the Mont Blanc Circuit! The first stretch was into the skiing town of Champex, which was a delightful small town, although no doubt it looks very different under snow in winter.

Not only was the town lovely, but it was only a few steps down a side street, to reach a small, but perfectly formed and stunningly beautiful, lake. There was good news from Simon, our leader, that we could take 15 minutes out to make a quick circuit.

 

We made the tour of Champex lake and every step was full of charm. It was clearly popular with the fish as well, as the local fishermen were reeling them in. The only things we weren't too sure about were the man made additions. These were some outdoor artworks, which, how else can we say it? were rather strange.  You see what we mean ...

... somehow a rabbit cuddling a fish doesn't seem quite natural, and neither does the length of those ears.

Before we take you any further on our tour, we will answer one of our reader's queries (Aunty G we believe) about what arnica looks like. We can offer you a picture, although you must appreciate that, at the time we were taking a photo of Gio, not the flower, so we didn't capture its best side. Hopefully though, it will give you a flavour of its looks ...

... it's very yellow, and, if we're honest, not disimilar to a dandelion.

Back soon,

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx