Published: 08.08.2019
On August 7th, day 18, the final of our TMB took place - back to Les Houches! Rain, rain, rain was brought to us by the clouds. Just like we started the round trip in terms of weather, our tour ended unfortunately. Nevertheless, we still went to Chamonix, had breakfast there, and finally took the bus to Les Houches. Yes, we made the last kilometers easier for us with a 20min. bus ride. By the way, on the last evening we walked almost half of the distance between Chamonix and the RockyPop Hotel on foot, so that we had completed the TMB except for four bus stops!
Our accommodation (Les Chalets Elena) did not have our room ready at 12 o'clock, which was understandable in some way; the receptionist informed us of this after a short phone call. We were told to come back at 4pm... With such a time span, we wondered why she had even called us. So we spent the time in a café in Les Houches (Le Delice, very good) and did some shopping in Chamonix in the late afternoon: postcards and funny cups :) We checked into our accommodation at 7pm, it was very chic, but there was no breakfast or dinner. It was an apartment that was particularly aimed at self-catering motorists. By the way, at check-out, the apartment was checked together with the housekeeper to see if everything was in order (the deposit was 500 euros). The garbage had to be disposed of... Honestly, we should have stayed at RockyPop for the last two days as well. Oh well, next time... At least Janina was able to use the wellness area after our arrival :))
On the last day of our vacation, we planned to ride the cable car over the Mont Blanc massif, to about 3800m altitude. Already the day before, we were advised to be at the cable car station in the valley at 6:30am to buy tickets. We would have had to get up at 5am to do this. We said goodbye to this plan and tried our luck shortly before 10am. The line in front of the ticket booths was very long... In retrospect, maybe we should have stood in line, but without breakfast in our stomachs, we switched to the alternative. We took two cable cars to the Brevent. Since the weather was very good, we had almost unobstructed views of Mont Blanc. We spent a very nice time at the summit of Brevent. In the evening, we went to the Indian Annapurna restaurant. After that, we looked at the photos of the past days in our apartment with a bottle of white wine and crackers. Then we dreamed for the last time on this vacation of the Tour du Mont Blanc :))
Now on the train on the way back, writing these last lines, we can look back on a very impressive hike with fascinating views and fun moments. During the eight stages, certain rituals even established themselves, such as the meeting of the two Israelis on mountain passes and peaks, the nightly search for ticks (which practically no longer exist above 1000m) and our order of hiking up and down the mountains. It was a great time, which started with beautiful days in Paris. Next time, Skyway starting from Courmayeur and the Henri-Vallot trail will definitely be on the program!