Journal of Life: lac Bleu Trail

Instead of descending straight to the Chamonix station, we stopped over at the mid-station in Plan de l'Aiguille instead. The time was around 11 am.

Initially, husband planned to take us for a long distance hiking trip, which is called l'Aiguille-Montenvers traverse (1913m). Started from here, the trail is said to be an easy one, but it will take 2.5-3 hr.

When we discussed over this hiking plan the night before, I was very hesitated. Based on past experience, the actual hiking time for us can easily exceed the estimated time by a factor of 1.5 So, we may take 3.75-4.5 hr to walk to the end point. What worried me the most is there is no intermediate station where we can stop the walk if any of us can't carry on anymore. Anyway, after many consideration, we finally reached the consensus that it's worth to challenge our physical limitation. After all, the trail is not dangerous, just long hour walking.

But unexpected thing do happen....Looking at William condition, we just got to abandon the whole plan. Frankly speaking, husband and I felt very disappointed for this. But we stick to our thumb of rules : safety come first.

Poor William, he really didn't feel well ever since we reached the top of Aiguille du Midi. So husband got to carry him all the way to descend to the mid-station Plan de l'Aiguille for a break. Hopefully, he would feel better at this lower altitude.

Husband and I wanted to get over the disappointment fast. We bought some hot foods and hot drinks from the bar, and settled down here while waiting for William to recover.

The 360 degree view from here can be described by one word : spectacular. Also, this is the best place to look at the to-and-fro cable car transporting passengers.

I felt a total relaxation sitting here, even the sandwich in my hand tasted so wonderfully fresh and juicy.

Just that I felt terribly sorry to see William to have curl his body on the bench there. Without a partner, Vincent had become very calm and quiet, like a bird without a wing.

After Vincent finished up his hot chocolate and hot dog bun, he said he wanted to go down there. We approved.

I knew what he was interested in. This place has so many big and small rocks for him to play on.

Yeah, I was right. Like said, everytime he moves his tail, I know what he wants...

Husband disappeared for a while to check for some information. When he came back, he said maybe we could go for a walk around this area, provided William recovered fast. He said there is a short trail, called lac Bleu (2299 m, level : easy) that will lead us to a lake. The round trip will take 1 hour only. Sounds a good alternative to me.

So, we waited, and prayed for this sick child to get well soon...

While waiting, husband and Vincent went down for a walk, and I looked after William.

The famous Aiguille du Mide cable car.

The trail looks great, we really hope William would get better soon, so that we could go for a short walk. After all, we had traveled a thousand miles to here...

After 20 minutes curling himself on the bench, suddenly William sat up, said he wanted to drink some water. I fed him immediately, then he said he was feeling much better now. In fact, he recovered pretty fast within a few minutes later, could walk and run like nothing has ever happened before. We were so happy to see him back.

When he saw this orange color tent down there, he ran to it jolly-happily, then he pretended it was his tent. Our mood had elevated instantly when we saw him back to his usual self again. Also of the reason we all could go for a short walk then. Yippee...

After his partner returned in full gear, Vincent has back to his usual self too. And we glad to hear them talking out loud again everywhere they go, forever.

Frankly speaking, I don't like his cap. No specific reason, just don't like to see it. But he likes it, what to do?

Before we started our walk, the boys suddenly wanted to take photos with the camera. We were in really good mood, so we let them play with it for a while. Of course they snapped many pictures, I just choose the good looking one. This picture was taken by Vincent.

This one was taken by William (I must publish it, for fair. Scared he will "question" me later).

Those little flowers along the path were captured by a professional cameraman, which is ME (cough cough).

Ok, let's move....

Looking at the beautiful scenery ahead, my heart is as bright and clear as the sky.

Thank you son, if it wasn't because of you, we won't be able to walk any further.

lac Bleu trail is really an easy ramble to walk on...

the most difficult part is like this only.

but easy has its easy good, we can focus more on the view than watching our steps.

down there is Chamonix Valley.

Husband is forever at the front for every hiking...and I'm forever at the back

Looking back to the trail...

Wonder why there isn't anybody climbing up that rocks, not excited enough?

And throwing stones into the water is forever their favorite too.

Knowing he would catch up with us soon, so we don't have to make him to move on with us..

Soon, he was right in front of me again...

After a while, William said he got a terrible stomach pain again. But this time, he got to go to pass motion. Since there is obviously no toilet around, we just got to find a hole to let him drop his wastes. Since he insisted, we got to find a hole where no body could see him doing his big business. It's not easy to find such a hole. After some time, finally husband had find a perfect hole for him somewhere up there.

The hole is somewhere here. While safe guided son, husband spotted a wild animal standing on the rocks there, maybe it has been watching them doing all this for quite some time. Luckily it didn't call its father mother brother sister uncle auntie for an attack.

While waiting for them, Vincent sat there to fix something...

When William had finished up his business, his look was like : tsu-fok-sai. So do I.

It was noon time by then. The sun was so bright and shining that I couldn't open up my eyes widely without my sun glasses and hat.

Weird to see such a big rock rested here...Son asked : who put it here?

Another 15 minutes later, we saw the lake, which is our final destination.

Due to distance problem, I couldn't capture the whole lake and the mountains behind it, in landscape. Too bad.

But it's beautiful enough, nestled in a bowl surrounded by rock boulders at the foot of Aiguille du Midi.

It was such a beautiful sunny day, good for sun bathe.

When he saw people sun bathing over there, he also wanted to do the same. Funny to see him lying there like this.

At this angle, the reflection of the water looks rather 'illusion'.

In fact, the water is crystal clear.

We stopped here for a break...and let the boys to play their favorite activity again.

Me and the crystal clear water. I like this photo. Also, my colors are matched with the color of the water, right.

The water is freezing cold though under the bright sun. No wonder none would swim here.

Saw those eggs in the shallow part of the water. Husband said they should be fish's egg, sons said they should be frog's egg. But we didn't see any fish (not even small fish) nor frog around....So, we told the boys that those could be the eggs of some sort of invisible creatures. They gave us a ridiculous look.

Ok, photo session again.

Silly enough

Since we need to go somewhere else, we couldn't stay here any longer though the boys wanted to. Furthermore, 20 minutes was long enough to us, adult.

Heading back on the same path.

Those flowers are everywhere. Small but beautiful.

The King of Daisyland. Ok lah...

We figured out that we won't get lost as long as we follow the rocks that painted with a red dot. The boys were so amazed to this brilliant idea.

Ok, saw the snack bar from far now. We were almost back then.

As usual, we won't walk continuously, but made a little stop here and there. That's one of the reasons why we need to multiply the journey time by a factor of 1.5