Sierre to St Gervais les Bains

We were held up leaving our campground in Sierre, as nothing opened until 9am & we couldn't pick up the meds. So we missed the early train back to France. The trip up from Sierre through Martigny to Le Chatelard on the Swiss-French border was, as expected, very scenic and made more enjoyable by a chat with some friendly yanks from Utah. At Le Chatelard, we transferred to a bus, which dropped us a few kilometres later at Vallorcine, to start our climb towards St Gervais Les Bains. The road to Chamonix was nice, but the traffic increased thereafter. Chamonix was very touristy, as you'd expect. Our ride took us through Argentiere, Chamonix, and through long, steep rolling hills, mostly newly surfaced, around Les Houches and Vaudagne to our gite, a few kilometres before St Gervais Les Bains. The last few kilometres were particularly steep, heavily trafficked and a bit of a challenge, coming late in the day.
But the gite, Gite Mont Joly, was fantastic.
We were welcomed by Brendan, asking whether we wanted a beer, wine or shower first. He and Miranda and the children, Finn, Eoin & Oisin (about 15 mths old and obsessed with parapentes), made us feel like family and we enjoyed their generous hosting, their good rosé and good company. We "cooked" potato gratin dauphinois and quiche? for dinner and enjoyed the peaceful family atmosphere.
50km, 710m climbing.Read more