Glacier caves and Genepi Distilleries
Mark, Liz and I did the tourist thing on our last day in Chamonix. Cameras in hand we rode the train up to the Mer de Glace Glacier where crews dig tunnels into the glacier so that humans, and whatever else, can “walk thru time”. It was cheesy but I heard the glacier “move”, which freaked me out at first but was really cool. Every year they excavate a new hole because the movement of the glacier (1cm/hour) covers up the previous one.
After packing the match stick size car full with three peeps, a dog that smelled like poop, and all of our equipment we headed to Courchevel. Naturally, we stopped at Mitch’s place (the french exchange patroller from last year) for a little drinkie poo. Mitch follows the traditions of his family in distilling Genepi, a french digestif, curing whole ham in salt for a year, canning duck parfait, soaking prunes in grain alcohol, and many other cool old school ways of making your own food and booze.
The next day we went on the three valley tour of Courchevel. Quite the plethora of chairs, pomas, gondola, trams and other amusement park like rides on the slopes. Today I’m nursing a sore knee from too much hard pack. Picky, old, I don’t care what the excuse, this girl needs powder. Good thing it’s snowing!
