Fueled by Peanut Butter Balls - Tour du Mont Blanc - Day 1

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A few years ago when I first moved to Europe, my friend Chris sent me an email link to the top hikes in Europe according to National Geographic. One of the top hikes was the Tour du Mont Blanc. It sounded amazing in the article and I really wanted to do it. I envisioned myself frolicking in high alpine meadows full of flowers, of coming upon cows with bells around their necks, and of eating cheese, cheese, cheese. I asked everyone I knew if they would do the hike with me. No one was able to take two weeks off to partake in this adventure. I finally found the "express" hike, just six days and convinced my husband that it would be a fabulous trip for us to do together (I actually threatened to go alone). 

For those of you that don't know about this trek: (from Wikipedia) The Tour du Mont Blanc or TMB is one of the most popular long-distance walks in Europe. It circles the Mont Blanc massif, covering a distance of roughly 170 kilometres (110 mi) with 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of ascent/descent and passes through parts of Switzerland, Italy and France.

What adventure could be a better way to cap our three years in Europe? 

Today we completed day one of six: 

We departed our hotel this morning and walked for 20 minutes to the gondola. After a short gondola ride we reached the official start (for us). The sun was shining, Mont Blanc was in all her glory. We took a leisurely walk through the woods, following the wonderful signage. We soon came upon our first fields. In this field were three people and two cows. The cows were black with long horns. They had lovely red harnesses and giant bells hanging from their collars.  The people had them on a leash and were drinking wine in the sun in this flower covered meadow. I was quite taken with the scene. They motioned us over and Glade wanted to join them but I insisted we keep going. If we started drinking wine at 10 am, there was no way we would finish the hike (I know myself). From here we did quick detour to check out a glacier that had melted and had to do a quick back track to see the suspension bridge over the waterfall. We then proceeded to hike up and up and up for what seemed like hours. All along the way a coocoo bird followed us, coocooing our way along. We finally reached the top of the Col around noon and were treated to spectacular views of the valley below, weeping glaciers, cows, sheep, and marmots. It was a very steep hike down (hard on these old knees) but I was entertained by the sheep, the baby sheep and their bells. The hills were covered with the sound of ringing bells. It was amazing. After stopping for lunch at the valley chateau, we proceeded up another steep climb to another chateau. This one had the greenest grass I have ever seen. It was so lucious looking that I was tempted to try it. All around the chateau were cows with different size bells on. As they ate, moved around and chewed their cud, the bells rang and made the happiest melody.  It was beautiful. After enjoying the cows, we hiked down into the valley and finished our hike for the day. 10.5 miles today. More to come... We have five more days!