Argentiére

View from our window in Argentiére.

We made it safe and mostly sound to our home for the summer, Argentiére!  The weather here could not be nicer.  It is sunny and about 60 degrees and the Mont Blanc Massif is on full display.

Our travel was mostly smooth except for a delay out of Denver that caused us to be late for our connecting flight to Geneva.  As most of you know, M and I have been training quite hard of late.  What we didn’t realize was that we were training to sprint from Terminal D to Terminal C at Washington Dulles airport.  It was a half-mile race with only one big climb towards the end.  M and I were not first out of the starting blocks, but we made up significant ground on people who had not been training at altitude as we have.  As usual, M got into the lead and was first to our departure gate with me coming in about 2 seconds back.  Drenched in sweat, we presented our passports to the ticketing agents (kind of like finish line people who give you a medal after a race).  They assured us that we had won and would be allowed on the plane.  The nice stewards on the plane presented us with water as soon as we walked aboard and fortunately the air conditioning  was cranking so we could cool off.

As is usual for this flight however, we did not take off remotely on time and easily could have walked to the gate.  On the plus side, we did get in an excellent workout before sitting for 8 hours.  Fortunately we were able to be in Business Class so sitting is not too much of a burden since you can lie down fully whenever you desire. After a nice dinner for both of us we watched movies before turning in for a nice 3-4 hour nap.

We made it to Geneva about 8:30 am, and met our driver from Mountain Drop-Offs, Patrick. We highly recommend Mountain-Drop Offs as they are very friendly and take you door-to-door. This is the time when the sleeping on the plane comes in quite handy as you are able to stay awake for the drive to your destination.  When heading in to Chamonix, it is important that one be awake when nearing the town of Servoz.  Important because although the mountains can be seen for a large part of the drive, when you reach Servoz the Mont Blanc is on full display and it is HUGE!

At least for me, this being awake lasts until about 2 hours after arrival.  After that its nap time or else I start babbling, which isn’t that different from normal.  M has lived with me long enough however to tell the difference between normal babbling and, “Chris needs to take a nap right now,” babbling.

Since we invaded France with enough bags for a small army it took a while to unpack, but we are settling in nicely.  I hope to have pictures tomorrow!

Hopefully you all are well.  For those of you who are suppposed to be working out, get to it!

Au revoir,

Chris