Les vacances en France. Day 1

We have finally arrived in France for a vacation of hiking, trail running and the main objective on my part - running the Marathon du Mont Blanc in Chamonix. I’ll skip the part of getting here as it was a long driving journey from Moscow and get straight to the fun part. On the way we had a stopover in Germany to visit the Europapark - home to some of the biggest roller coasters in Europe and had a great fun filled day with my kid. The young man was absolutely thrilled to ride everything his height would allow him including the Bluefire Megacoaster.

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In France we’ve decided to stay in Saint Gervais which is only a 15 min drive to Chamonix but accommodation is a lot cheaper.  It is a really beautiful town full of interesting places to visit and I will do a separate post on it. The street lights of the city centre are really enchanting.

On our first day in the mountains we have decided to go for a fast hiking/ running trip from Notre Dame de la Gorge in Les Contamines up to the Lacs Jovet and back. In winter we’ve been skiing in Les Contamines and have visited the trailhead at Notre Dame but didn’t go up. So in summer we’ve decided to take a look at the trail which is up to the Balme refuge is a part of a classic Trail de Mont Blanc route. The distance for going up to the lake and back was 16 km and almost 1000 vertical meters up. The journey with a stop at the refuge for drinks at a very leisurely pace took us 5 hours. In my opinion, not bad for a day out with an 8 year old kid.

The trail starts with a  small waterfall and goes up with a rather steep ascent of a couple of hundred vertical meters.

This is an ancient Roman road and the locals even drive here. After seeing this I really understood what Jeeps are made for, definitely not for the streets of Moscow.

On the way up it is possible to go a little bit sideways to see a beautiful natural stone bridge and go down a path full of rocks and routes.

After the steep ascent part the trail goes through the Les Contamines natural reserve.

The ascent to the lake is a rather technical rocky trail that goes close to a beautiful waterfall.

And, finally we reach the lake. a little break for tired feet.

On the descent back down we were  running almost all the way with a little drink stop at the Balme refuge. It is such a great joy when your kid is big enough to discover the trails together.

In the evening we have decided to go to Chamonix to see the finish of Asics Beat the Sun challenge where teams representing different continents and consisting of both pro and amateur runners race against the sun around the Mont Blanc. The race is held on June 21st - the longest day of the year and the relay starts at sunrise and has to be completed before the sun goes down. 

The Americas team finished first with the team Southern Europe following less than 50 meters behind And they've out run the sun by more than 30 minutes.

The day was absolutely amazing and on the way back to the apartment we were rewarded by a fantastic view of the majestic Mont Blanc that was hidden behind the clouds all day.