The Mont Blanc Esprit de Corps
Hiking Europe’s Tour du Mont Blanc was a completely different slice of European culture for me: coming from a remote farmhouse to a thriving cafe serving a wonderful lunch… flowers and cows (with classic bells) sprinkled naturally… and an esprit de corps where everyone is like family.
Since almost everyone hikes in the same direction (counter-clockwise), you become friends with fellow hikers. It seemed like half the people on the trail were from America, and I met many satellites.
And in the interest of hiking light, lunch was pretty simple – just a sandwich from the hotel, maybe a carrot, a piece of fruit and water. But lunch on reaching the summit midday was a marmot feast. (Speaking of marmots, we didn’t see any wildlife except for a few mice buried under hiking boots on the trail.)
