The weather's been deliciously warm up here this week, with the thermometer outside my kitchen window pushing 28 degrees at lunchtime today. It's been so hot, even my cat is panting.
We took a nice walk down the Petit Balcon Nord tonight - the bridge next to the Cremerie (under the Argentiére Glacier) is still being rebuilt, meaning trail users have to cut down to town, then back up onto the Petit Balcon Nord via the Les Grands Montets base station. No word on when this is going to be finished...especially since the majority of the municipality's works attention is going into the installation of the new Brevent lift right now!
In town, the sale period is just coming to and end. The French word for a sale is 'SOLDE', and outside some specifically defined blocks of time in the year, shops are simply not allowed to have a sale. 'Fin de Serie' and 'Promo' are acceptable, but the S-word is very carefully regulated. And French shops, particularly the ones up here in Cham, tend to go slightly bonkers in sale time. Footworks, the Mammut pro shop down next to the Aiguille, had an impressive 40% off pretty much everything - I was able to score a bargain on some 510 bike shoes I'd had my eye on for a while. And my girlfriend got a great deal on a bikini at Billabong. It's worth picking up a deal while you still can. Meanwhile, chck out the French government page with details of all the French sale times for the different regions.
Had an excellent mid-mountain walk the other day...we go up fairly early and took the Aiguille du Midi cable car to mid-station (Plan d'Aiguille). From there, we headed down the Grand Balcon Nord toward Montenvers, traversing high above Chamonix. Now, although the majority of the gnarly snow and ice vistas of Mont Blanc are obscured by the towering walls of granite right above you, the views over the valley floor, over Brevent, over Flégère and over Le Tour at the top were sensational. When we'd nearly reached Montenvers the track split, and always keen to try a new route, we branched right up some very steep switchbacks in the direction of the Signal. The path quickly turned into scree, but was fairly obvious thanks to the red blobs on rocks and little cairns sitting around the place. From Montenvers, we took the cog rail train back down to Chamonix. It was a great little adventure, and only took a couple of hours door to door. Give it a go sometime!
Finally, I leave you with news that word on the street is that Chambre Neuf's excellent 'Kräftskiva' Crayfish Party, a traditional Swedish event involving the consumption of large quantities of the aforementioned invertebrate, is scheduled for 22nd August. Being a Swedish event, there's plenty of schnapps involved, but the canny Swedes always blame the crayfish for the morning-after stomach troubles. More on this bizarre yet unmissable event here. I can't wait!
