Another day above. Vilars

 July10 Sunday

I have my phone with me today so more pictures on the blog.

This morning we take a bus up to higher elevation. This is the area where our guide grew up and her parents, grandparents and great grandparents. It was fun to hear her family stories, Our hike starts at Miroir de L’argentine which had nothing to do with Argentina but means silver mirror.

Looking at the mountain one can see how it got that name. We hike a little way and then we get a geology lesson using jackets and scarfs as visuals to describe Continental drift. 

Then our guide pulled out a thing of upholstery samples to show how the mountains were formed with all of the different layers. Now that was a first! Emiriel, our guide, told us stories of climbing the mountain face when she was a teenager. He father at 83 wanted to climb it again. They helped him train for it and he accomplished the climb again at 83. And also showed us an newspaper article of a local man who climbed out at 94!

The hike was beautiful with spectacular mountain back drops. Sometimes we were in the meadows and sometimes in the woods. We walk to one of the larger towns and have a wonderful lunch.

After lunch we walk down the mountain a little way to Gryon, our guide’s home village. It is larger than I expected. The oldest part of the town was from the period around 1500. There was a bad fire in the early 1700’s that destroyed many of the older buildings but things were rebuilt. 

The town water basin was one that another town said was to big and couldn’t be brought up the mountain. The men of her town tried to bring out up the mountain but failed until the women came to help too.

Years slid off of Emuriel when she demonstrated games they did as children with the water and getting each other wet. 

We walked past Emiriel’s house which her grandfather built. She doesn’t have any siblings or children to pass it on so she doesn’t know what will happen to it . She had deep feelings for the history and traditions of the town. 

For a surprise, we were tested to a drink and little pastry at a local place overlooking the valley. Time to thank Emuriel and say goodbye. As we’re leaving the restaurant we see coverage of Tour de France. They are going right past where we crossed the va road! It was fun to recognize the spot.

As we talk to others in the group, we discover that we’re the only ones with the suite and bigger balcony. We invite everyone to come up for some wine and chocolate while we watch the sunset.