Stats:
13 Miles walked
We woke up in our refuge camp after a fitful sleep. If you aren't use to sleeping in a sleep sheet or sleeping bag type of confinement, it can be quite hard to get your proper toss and turn down. The refuge had very nice sleeping accommodations. We were in a room with two bunks that slept four but it was just the two of us. We had an indoor bathroom down the hall with hot showers and a flushing toilet. For backcountry set up, it was luxury. After breakfast we set off up the mountain behind the refuge. The sun was shining and the views were magnificent. The shepherd was just getting ready to move his sheep out of their night pasture and they were frolicking alongside the trail. We proceeded up a steep climb for quite a while, topping off to a flat march through the snow to the French / Italian border. Looking behind us into France was steep valleys covered in green grass and wild flowers. Looking forward into Italy was a giant flat glacial valley with a wide river bed and mountains covered in trees. We proceeded down the valley, initially through snow (with some butt sliding) and eventually onto the trail that proceeded past the ruins of old army barracks before turning into a relatively flat road that followed the river out of the valley. It looked so different from the French side of the mountain and reminded me of the large glacial valleys in Canada.
Once you cross over the border the language changes. The signs change and your greeting to your fellow hikers changes. In France you greeted everyone with a joyful, Bonjour! In Italy it immediately changed to Buongiorno! Or Ciao! However Glade likes to stick with his traditional German greeting of Hallo! We have started to see more and more people as we have proceeded. One Austrian couple has been along with us the entire way. They are very nice with limited amount of English so our passing conversations are always brief.
I have always had problems with my knees and the downhills are killing me. Thank god for my cool arnica and anti-inflammatory medicine. But by the time we reached the road, I was now limping. We now had to decide to proceed on the trail up over another pass or make our way further down the road and try to catch a bus into Courmayeur. We decided to try to bus route. We walked another three miles down the road before coming to a gate and car parking. There was a bus stop a short distance further. The instructions (in Italian). Said to call for the bus but in the early season it only runs from 9-12 and 2:30-5:30. It was 2:15. We tried to call but got an voicemail. We decided to keep walking. After three more miles we came upon a small store with an older gentlemen outside. We asked if he knew if the bus was running, he didn't speak English but directed us inside the store. The lady running the store was so nice to us! She called the bus company and arranged for a pickup. We got some cold sparkling water and sat out on the bench and waiting for the bus. At this point I was limping quite bad and was in a lot of pain. Thank god we didn't have to walk the further seven miles into town! We arrived in town around 4:30 and checked into our hotel. We had time for a nice hot shower before finding a pizza place with great pizza and wine. At dinner we ended up bumping into Ard (the man from Holland with the tree trunk legs) and he entertained us with stories about his bar bike business in Amsterdam. Another good day in the books but I think I need new knees! 
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