The third day of our fabulous Mont Blanc trek brought the best news yet: no more rain. It was cold that Tuesday morning. But it wasn’t raining. Nor sleeting. Nor snowing. We left La Fouly, Switzerland, and hiked to Champex-Lac, still in Switzerland, 11 miles away.

We had the daily itinerary and Neil would update us every day. I even printed it out by the day so I would remember where in the world we were. But when it came to height gain and descents, the numbers didn’t mean anything to me, until I was in the thick of it. Then the views were outstanding and the trek was challenging and my knees… well, you know the story by now. For the record: we were up 1,870 feet. Height gain, 1,300 feet.

We started out on what you might call an easy trek. We walked along a river and were surrounded by trees, shrubs and a brilliant green landscape dotted with homes.

Then there was a waterfall (of course there was). The fog kept the mountain hidden.

As we went, the weather turned progressively warmer and we all started peeling off our layers.  The path went up and down. And then we were on one of those balcony paths again where to the left was the mountain and to the right was, well, down.

It was a nice way to start the day after the madness of the storm the day before.

Then we came upon a food truck – a “Kababana” in those parts – and its specialty was crepes. All sorts of crepes. And I didn’t eat one. Mistake. Because the last part of the trek, the last four miles, was a pretty steep climb. And we weren’t stopping again. No, I thought, I’ll just eat my breakfast bar/energy bar/whatever-it’s-called bar and that will be fine. I wasn’t that hungry. “Eat before you’re hungry, drink before you’re thirsty,” Kareem kept repeating. I should have listened.

After that stop, we were back on the path and on our way to Praz-de-Fort and Issert, two incredibly charming villages in the valley. There were homes adorned with flower boxes, very “I saw this scene once as a jigsaw puzzle.”  

And then we came across the yard of gnomes. They were mostly Disney characters and, as I’m not a gnome aficionado, seemed to be pretty fun and cute. We came across another crepe food truck in the village and I asked the cooks about the gnome home. They said it’s just a lady who lives there and likes gnomes. Nothing more.

This was the first time I’d been to Switzerland. It was quite the experience to see it this way, if only for two days. Flowers, streams, huts, crepes, gnomes.

Then the easy part of the day was over. Neil pointed to where we were headed next – it was a 6k climb to Champex-Lac, an alpine village with a lake. I thought he pointed to this white building I kept seeing way up the hill. So I kept my eyes on that. At this point, I was starting to regret skipping the crepe.

Up. And up. It was tough! Lots of switchbacks and some really steep spots. I remember at one point, the path was almost right in front of my face. I thought – “OK, I need to be Spiderman right now.”  I kept my eyes on that white building, assuming that was where we were staying that night.

Nah. Nothing was ever that easy. Neil would always tell us how far we were going but the end of the day’s trek was always at the hotel at the end of the road. “It’s just a smidge more,” he’d say. “It’s another 200 meters, 400 meters.”

Finally, at the top of the hill, white building and all, we stopped to take some photos outside another hotel that had a fantastic view from its outdoor café. Oh I was grumpy but Patrick, as always, knew we would all want photos with this background and took my picture. And, of course, he was right and, of course, it’s a beautiful photo.

The weather turned a bit colder up here and the wind picked up. But, hey, Neil said we just had 800 meters to go!  And then there it was – the lake. And it was gorgeous. Mountain background, shimmering lake, cute lake house, edelweiss amid purple and red and yellow flowers. The hotel was just up a little ways more…

It didn’t matter anymore. Photos were required here and I took a lot of them. After checking in, we all met at the bar, enjoyed spritzes, snacks, beer and celebrated the wedding anniversary of Michael and Jenny! Dinner was delicious – spare ribs, roasted potatoes, vegetables – and plenty of good wine.

Then the fun really began.  At the end of the night, Neil, Patrick, Michael, Jenny and I were the last ones still at the table. And Michael brought up a scene in Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian.”  And he just started reciting different scenes. Then Patrick and Neil chimed in. Those three sat there and laughed, recalling scene after scene, and Jenny just shook her head. “Oh no, here we go…” she said.

I swear Michael knew the whole movie. I laughed just watching them. It was certainly a fun way to end the day.  

More photos from the day, including some interesting forest sculptures:

Next: Day 4 – We head to France and eat lunch at a refuge next to a herd of cows.