Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 3 – Refuge Flégère to Lac Blanc

Following an overnight stay at Refuge la Flégère, our third day hiking on the Tour de Mont Blanc offered two alternate plans. We could either push on a little higher to Lac Blanc, or descend to Chamonix and then take the lift back up the other side of the mountain to the Aiguille du Midi. Since we’d heard that picturesque Lac Blanc was a ‘must see’, we decided to keep the altitude we’d sweated so hard to gain and push on for Lac Blanc.

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Arriving at Lac Blanc

The path took us higher up the mountain around narrow rocky tracks. After 1.5 hours we met a junction where the path from L’Index chair lift came in.

Only a little over the crest and we arrived at Lac Blanc, with views that were well worth the walk. The original glacier was gone, but the milky blue-green glacial lake offered amazing views and reflections of the mountain peaks.

Just behind the main lake is a second smaller lake. We enjoyed clambering up the rocky outcrop to take in the spectacular views of the lake with a backdrop of the mountains. After posing like mountaineers for photos, we sat and relaxed on the sunny terrace of Refuge du Lac Blanc.

A cold beer and tarte au mytilles seemed entirely appropriate, since we’d seen the tiny wild blueberries on the path as we’d come up. Looking down from the terrace on the other side, we could see a number of smaller lakes on the slopes below. Had we been continuing on the TMB route, we would walked past them, rather than going back on the same path.

Sadly, as this was our last day of walking for this year, so we needed to make our way down to the valley. We took an alternative route back towards Flégère, where we had left much of our gear to make the climb less arduous.

The path to L’Index chairlift

This time we took the different path that traversed across to the top of L’Index chairlift, thinking that it would be easier than the one we had come up on. In fact it took almost the same time, on a barren, rocky grey landscape, that was harder to walk on.

As we arrived at the top of L’Index chair lift, we donned our warmest fleeces for the lift down. We felt rather exposed as we dangled in mid air, over the heads of mountain bikers descending at speed on the piste paths below.

Arriving at Refuge Flegere at 2pm, we stayed only long enough to repack our rucksacks before continuing our walk right down to the valley. The trail was along a wide shale track, that would probably become a ski-piste in the winter season.

Although physically undemanding it was extremely unpleasant to walk on as we kept sliding and losing our footing on the dusty surface. Half way down we met a track through the forest signposted for Chalet Floria and turned onto a more pleasant, shady trail with the odd rushing stream to hop over.

See everything I packed for the Tour de Mont Blanc.

Refreshments at Chalet Floria

We finally reached the aptly named Chalet Floria, where a small chalet had been made into an outdoor café terrace. A riot of colourful geraniums filled every possible space, with quirky figures and colourful metal tables and chairs.

It was obviously a favourite refreshment point for those making the short walk up from Chamonix through the forest. Here they could take a drink overlooking the valley and then stroll back down again.

The walk down to Chamonix

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity of another café break here. Then we took the path down to Chamonix, feeling that we were rejoining civilisation after our days walking on the wild mountain side.

In the town we found our bus stop to take us back to Les Houches. A very welcome deep, hot bath awaited us at out hotel. Here we posed for our final ‘after the walk’ shot to match the ‘before’ shot outside the tourist office three days before.

Our luck provided clear blue skies and sunshine all the way, although the next morning as we left the rain had set in. We’d come back with one broken walking pole but nothing worse. Read about using my Leki walking poles on the Tour de Mont Blanc.

We decided that we could have walked for longer but wouldn’t want to walk the whole TMB in one go. Our preference is to break it up with a comfortable hotel bed and a rest day every so often.

The following year, we’d be back to walk a bit more of the Tour de Mont Blanc. However, being walkers for pleasure rather than endurance, it took us us three more years to complete!

Watch my Tour de Mont Blanc Video

This video from our first year of walking on the Tour de Mont Blanc covers Days 1, 2 and 3 of the walk.

Resources for walking the Tour de Mont Blanc

We used the Cicerone Tour of Mont Blanc guide by Kev Reynolds. It’s an excellent guide for both the clockwise and anti-clockwise route. There’s a detailed route guide, maps, accommodation information and points of interest along the route.

At the start of our walk, we stayed in Les Houches, a village in the Chamonix Valley – check out all the hotel options here. Les Houches is well placed for summer walking opposite the start of the anti-clockwise TMB route.

We booked our transfer from Geneva airport to Les Houches through Alpy Transfers. They run an efficient airport to hotel service.

More information and booking for the Refuge at Lac Blanc is here.

Bookings for some refuges (but not Lac Blanc) can also be made on the Mon Tour de Mont Blanc website. To avoid disappointment and a long walk, you should book your place in all refuges. You can normally do so a day or two before, or from the previous refuge.

The Autour du Mont Blanc website has useful information to help you plan and prepare for your Tour de Mont Blanc walk.

Read Next

Read about our next day’s walk: Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 4 – Flégère to Refuge Col de Balme

More tales from the Tour de Mont Blanc

• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 1 – Les Houches to Refuge la Bellachat
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 2 – Refuge de Bellachat to la Flegere
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 3 – this article
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 4 – Flégère to Refuge Col de Balme
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 5 – Col de Balme to Champex
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 6 – Champex Lac to Ferret
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 7 – Ferret to Rifugio Elena
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 8 – Rifugio Elena to Rifugio Bonatti
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 9 – Rifugio Bonatti to Courmayeur
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 10 & 11 – Courmayeur to Chapieux
• Tour de Mont Blanc – Day 12, 13 & 14 – Chapieux to Les Houches

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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