Under the Dome de Miage

A two-and-a-half hour walk uphill brought us to this extraordinary spot at around 5,000 ft. It's hard to describe the feeling of bliss it gave me being up on this high grassy plain, with wildflowers, fast-flowing rivers, glaciers (you can see there are three of them clearly in the photo on flickr) and even a restaurant - and all at a temperature of about 80F. It's part of the Tour du Mont Blanc trail, which goes all the way round the peak at about this level. We hung out here for a couple of hours before pushing on up to a waterfall higher up.

The walk back down produced these views views views which looked, to me, less like France than like cowboy country in the USA, complete with horses and cattle/ cattle.

Was just a beautiful and uplifting day. I haven?t felt so contented in a long time. I could spend a lot of time in these mountains.