The Mountains Are Calling, And We Must Go

Wednesday was a travel day. We drove seven hours (with two stops) from the Loire Valley to Les Houches, a small town within a short distance of Chamonix.  It was approximately 400 miles (give or take a couple).  There was a lot of sleeping (excluding the driver), a lot of reading or game playing on electronics, and shockingly little whining. Only one "are we there yet," and that was said in jest.

We gave up entirely on using the Garmin and relied on my iPhone. Probably running up data charges, but it was important to believe we could get where we needed to get.

The drive was uneventful, which is good. We rolled through France like angry Germans. The landscape went from the relatively flat and boring to hilly, to bigger hills, and finally to Alps as we approached Geneva (and then, heading South, France bulges back out – we never crossed into Switzerland, but we could see it from our car door windows).  Some of the scenery was quite boring, and some was spectacular.

We had talked about going a bit out of our way to spend a short time at Annecy (described as the Lucerne of France), but I changed my mind and nixed the idea. That worked out well – it was very relaxing to get to the place, go food shopping at the local Carrefour, and then sit on our patio staring at the mountains and enjoying some wine and cheese.

The chalet is fabulous. It’s another Portico Club property. This is our second year as Portico members, and we’ve been to seven different places – Orlando, Rancho Palos Verde, Scottsdale, Vail (two different places), the British Virgin Islands (see posts on the blog from earlier this year), and now Chamonix (Les Houches). It’s great to stay in very nice places for discounted prices. (Seriously, we are huge fans – great way to travel – ask us about it!)

After ten days in a hotel, it’s great to stay in a house. Besides two balconies and a patio looking at the mountains, we have our own kitchen, own washer/dryer (Carol’s being doing laundry non-stop since we arrived), and, with four bedrooms, each daughter has their own bedroom/bathroom. Very relaxing. Our Portico guy, Brian Hoffman, has been reading the blog and arranged for a bottle of Vouvray and a funny note to be left in the refrigerator. Between that wine, and the great brie and other cheese, it was a nice evening.

Aurora (I think that’s her name) is the concierge here and has done a wonderful job so far – showing us around, setting up our tickets for Friday’s trip up Aigulle du Midi, showing us how to get where we need to go, and talking about hikes. She was very excited to see us eating bread and cheese with our pre-dinner wine – apparently it’s very French!

Dinner at the restaurant was fine – the food was affordable, and the views are sublime.

With the exception of pictures from the last two days, the blog is actually caught up, so it is time for me to go jump off a mountain (tandem paragliding).