Day 3 La Fouly to Champex
We are well fed and watered in the Hotel Edelweiss in La Fouly. The River Drance burbling away all the time in the background is quite pleasant. The weather continues dry and hot and the cool mornings are appreciated. We read of the problems of the farmers in the Po valley with the markedly decreased flow down the Po and consequent saline irrigation. Up here there is water but rivers are low and the glaciers are not so much retreating as being routed by the heat and lack of late snow or rain.
After a brief stop in Praz de Fort (a delightfully well groomed place, one could be tarred and feathered for failing to keep one’s garden immaculate) for coffee or beer as needed we meander on down the Dranse valley until we slope up the side for the day’s climb. Fortunately we enter trees and are over halfway up before demands for lunch overcome wish for beer and a conveniently placed log provides plentiful sitting space.
Climbing up steeply through intermittent trees we suddenly exit on to road up to Champex Lac and a short
walk, continuing up the sentir didactique de champions (we had noted the signs of different fungi) along the route, and we are suddenly confronted by the Hotel Splendide. And it is and biere on draft is immediately available. This blog now posted sitting over the view on hotel WiFi. Little else is needed.