Argentiere, silver platter in French, is just uphill from Chamonix, about 9 km to be exact. From this village we head over the Col de Balme. The guidebook says “allows you to get into your stride with ease”. Let’s hope so.

We had a leisurely start this morning as we have nine KM total for today’s walk, a mostly forested walk along the stream coming down from the higher passes. There were number of people and mt. bikes on the trail most of which were going downhill since you can ride the train up to the top and walk or ride back down. We haven’t seen any other trekkers as of yet although we seen a number of young climbers waiting at the various bus stops along the road with their gear and ropes hanging off their backpacks.

We’ve taken advantage of the upscale facilities in the last two hotels we stayed in. They both had pools as well as Jacuzzis (which are not hot tubs because the Jacuzzi’s aren’t that warm). The current hotel we are staying in has a stainless steel pool as well as a stainless steel hot tub. The pool is half inside and half outside, and makes me want to install one in our condo.