Les Alpes! <3

I’ve only been in the Alps for two whole days so far, but holy shmoly. I am so very very excited that past stasia scheming her sabbatical decided that current stasia would enjoy playing here for a whole month:)

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(La Croix de Loriaz. From a trail run today:)

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But maybe let me back up. I had a full travel day to get here (including a 5-hour layover in which I wandered Paris), from Reims to Chamonix. I was a little nervous about pulling it off since it involved four different trains, three of which had 15-minute or less connections between the two. But I shouldn’t have been worried — I was thinking of connections the way they work (or don’t) for, say, Trimet in Portland, where you might not know exactly how to get from one bus stop to another, and one might be late, or the second might not come, and each connection increases the chance that your trip won’t quite work out. In France it was easy-peasy to get off one on-time train and amble over to the next well-signed, on-time train. We could learn a thing or two from this;)

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(Les trains à grande vitesse à la Gare de Lyon! I.e. high-speed trains. My first two trains were TGVs; the other two were little commuter trains. I was very surprised when the first commuter train pulled into one station and then pulled out again going the opposite direction (I was nervous I was supposed to have switched trains or something and just didn’t know), but all was well and I guess it just does that?)

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So I made it to Chamonix, where I have a teeny tiny apartment for the next month. I am so psyched. I spent yesterday trying to “move in” (unpack/figure out where everything goes in this small place, buy food, get my “carte d’hôte,” which gives me free access to the train in the valley and reduced fare on the buses, etc etc) and get situated, then explore. On a whim, I rented a bicycle for three days and spent a lot of yesterday just biking around randomly trying to get the lay of the land. I find that random biking is super helpful for me to just sort of figure out where things are as I make weird turns, double back on myself, get lost, get found again, and just generally start to make a mental map of my surroundings.

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(sweet rental bike! I spoke better French than the rental dude, which made me laugh; we ultimately conversed in English. Which is a bit of a bummer, but okay;)

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(bike lanes and mountains:)

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(sweet flowery house I passed while exploring:) I even, over the course of the day, got to fulfill a sort of jokey fantasy of biking super mellow-style and helmetless around a French town with a baguette in my hand. Classic;)

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(more exploring:) Can you imagine if this were just casually your always-neighborhood, and this was your normal route to the grocery store or the pharmacy??)

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Today I took advantage of the free train and trained up the valley to Le Buet, where I went for an absolutely outrageous run. Maybe I should mention that it was only 15 miles so I thought, given that the train got me there at 9am or so, that even with stopping to gawk and take pictures and look at flowers and things that I would be back for a rather late lunch. However, I failed to look closely at the elevation profile, which ended up being 7,000 feet of elevation gain and taking me to an elevation just 1,000 feet shy of Mt Hood in Oregon (I did not, however, have to do any snow travel like I would have on Mt Hood;)

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(but omg the views!! Also, I ran to Switzerland! I was in Switzerland when I took this picture:)

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So, I should have brought more snacks. I’ve decided this is the story of my life this sabbatical, never quiiiiite enough food. Ha. But luckily, now when I’m done with an adventure — unlike in Canada when I just had whatever I was carrying on my bike which was usually not enough — now I come home to my sweet apartment right across a little plaza from a grocery store and surrounded by little boutiques that will happily sell me cheese, baguettes, crepes, so many things;) Even some vegan things occasionally (side note: I am very excited to have a kitchen, even if it’s itty-bitty, so that I can cook for myself and make it much easier to follow my vegan heart;)

But holy shmoly this run!! It was everything I’ve ever wanted out of a run: amazing views, engaging trail, not a million people…

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(This was the Refuge de Loriaz, to go with the croix from my earlier picture. I think you can stay here. You can also buy food, though this was too early for me to realize I was going to be ravenous yet;)

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(I saw a bunch of these alpine ibexes! I had to look up what they were;) When I was talking to James I was like, uh, maybe they were mountain goats? But also bighorn sheep-like? But yeah, apparently they’re a kind of goat. I also learned they almost went extinct in the 19th century but are now back and a species of “least concern.” I know this one looks fake, but it’s just zoomed, ha)

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(There were really some pretty lakes in Switzerland:) Sadly, part of the leave no trace ethic here is not to swim in alpine lakes. Which is honestly probably better; I am careful not to have chemicals on my skin when I jump in lakes but that is probably too much to ask of everyone. But no alpine lake swimming for me here;)

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(And pretty mountains EVERYWHERE)

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(And some pretty engaging route-following. Here there were ropes you could haul yourself up or hold onto on your way down….

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(…and here, there was a cable. Unlike the ropes, which I didn’t really feel like I needed, I was pretty glad for many of the cables on the way up the back side of Mt Buet. The trail follows that ridge below and it is SO COOL)

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So, okay, that was a lot of pictures cuz I am overflowing with happiness and awe and amazement that it’s only been two days and I have TWENTY EIGHT more to explore this place. (And like in Canada, James will come meet me partway through, so we get some joint playtime here too:)

I noticed today that there were a bunch of larch trees in the lower elevations — I wonder if they will start to turn golden while I’m here, or if that will be a later-fall thing? And what sort of weather will this month hold as it turns fall-y? I’m so excited to see!

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(one more fall-inspired picture for good measure;)