Tour du Mont Blanc Day Twelve – Refuge la Flégère to Chamonix

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy!
Robert Burns

The best laid scheme of today was to finish our Tour du Mont Blanc on top of Le Brévent and then get the cable car down into Chamonix to celebrate. It started to go awry with the weather forecast of last night and was confirmed in the early hours when the storm rolled in, wind whistling through the gaps in the old wooden frames and rain sweeping across the panes.

And so, the last day turns out much like the first, ‘in my end is my beginning’, except that there is actual lightning flashing in the sky this morning meaning any climb to the heights would be foolish unless you wanted to risk becoming a lightning rod. A long breakfast and a look at the options follows. To take the cable car straight down into the valley without doing any walking would be an anti climax to what has been a fantastic journey. After chatting to the warden she recommends the walk down the forest track and joining up with the Petit Balcon Sud which will take us all the way down to Chamonix through the pine trees.

Steve and I don’t mind a bit of rain, as a friend of mine says ‘it’s only rain, you won’t melt’. And although we won’t get to walk up Le Brévent this is compensated somewhat by the joy of continued living. And at least we will get some walking in on our last day.

And so we set off down the gravel 4×4 forest track and into the woods. The showers come and go with occasional thunder and lightning. It’s a leisurely stroll, downhill all the way. Occasionally there are glimpses of the Mont Blanc massif and the Chamonix valley through the trees.

After a while we get to leave the gravel behind as we join up with the Floria path leading to Petit Balcon Sud and the pines become more intimate around us, rain dripping from the water laden fronds. We meet a few people but the rain has probably put the majority of day walkers off.

About halfway down we come across the lovely Chalet de La Floria and it’s an unexpected delight as we weren’t meant to be passing this way. A small and solid stone built cafè covered with an abundance of red, pink and purple flowers that fill up the window boxes and hanging baskets with more in tubs and pots laid out along the terrace.

Steve and I sit ourselves down on the terrace under brightly coloured umbrellas which only serve to highlight the general gloominess of the day. Mont Blanc is unseen above a blanket of dark rain filled clouds hanging low in the valley. We pass the time and have a couple of final coffees, dodging the rain showers when they arrive by dipping into the chalet.

More forest walking follows and within an hour we have reached the outskirts of Chamonix. A couple of residential roads and ugly concrete alleyways later and we are standing in the main square outside the tourist information office.

We pay a visit to the two monuments that commemorate the first two men to climb Mont Blanc back in 1786, Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel Gabriel Paccard. They climbed and reached the top together but in a story that resonates with today’s ‘Fake News’ Paccard was all but written out of the story by a glory seeking Balmat. That’s why the statue with two men is not Balmat and Paccard but Balmat and the financier who put the money up for the expedition. Poor Dr Paccard had to wait until 1986 for his part in the first ascent to be recognised with his own statue.

After having a look around and a celebratory meal in Chamonix we get the bus to Les Houches and a kindly Norwegian takes some pictures of us at the Start/Finish arch. It has been a soggy, but still satisfying last day. And with that our journey was over.

Our Tour du Mont Blanc was seven months in the planning and twelve days in the walking. In total we walked 108.4 miles and climbed up and down 31,499ft.

We got it done and are better men for it. Enriched by the experience, the sights we have seen and the memories we will have for the rest of our lives. And for me, a twenty year ambition has turned into another reality.

What they undertook to do They brought to pass; All things hang like a drop of dew Upon a blade of grass.

W B Yeats

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