Day 1 TMB: Up, up, up and Down, down, down...

Arrived at the Auberge des Cret in Les Houches, France just in time for a dinner of split pea soup, pasta, bread, cheese, salmon, and a chocolate pear dessert. Wow! Met some great folks at this hostel - couple of women from Australia just finishing and two fun kids, Ana and Tiago (friends from Veterinary school in Portugal) who are now living in France and England. Learned many tales of their trip (first day was the worst, where to get your t-shirt, how many socks to bring, use ear plugs in the dorms, etc.) The 10 hour time difference kept us wide awake from about 11 pm till 3 am but at least we had a nice private room with a terrific view. After a good breakfast, our roomies headed back to their respective countries and Vern and I took off!  The trail is incredibly well marked with distance given in hours. The first bit nearly killed us - pretty much straight up a mountain under a ski lift - Ana was right. Gained 4,500 feet and lost 4,000 feet over the 10 miles today which was brutal, but it's behind us and we survived. Lovely quaint homes and churches along the way and we ended the first day with a beautiful hike along a river to the Chalet CAF at Les Contamines. At the dinner table tonight were folks from the Netherlands, South Korea, Australia, Israel and England and we were served Chicken Curry with Tumeric (for those of us needing anti-inflammation assistance!) and lemon mousse in awesome little mason jars. Such great stories at the table!  We learned from the Israeli flight attendant with El-Al airlines that pilots often play Sudoko while the planes are on auto.  I will wonder about that all the time now as I peer into the cockpit when boarding...