Mountain climbing Europe’s Tour du Mont Blanc was a completely completely different slice of European tradition for me: Coming upon a distant farmhouse-turned-thriving-cafe serving fantastic lunches…flowers and cows (with basic bells) scenically sprinkled all through…and an esprit de corps the place everyone seems to be like household.


As almost everybody hikes in the identical course (counter-clockwise), you grow to be pals with fellow hikers. It appeared like half the individuals on the path had been from the US, and I met a lot of Seattleites.


And within the curiosity of mountain climbing gentle, lunches had been quite simple — only a sandwich from the lodge, perhaps a carrot, a chunk of fruit, and water. However upon reaching the mid-day summit, lunch was a marmot’s banquet. (Talking of marmots, we noticed no wildlife besides a few mice that had been squished underneath mountain climbing boots on the path.)