The Chapeau and beyond

Alps, Walking -

The Chapeau and beyond

It was a lovely, hot sunny day in Chamonix. We decided to walk up to the Chapeau, perhaps to treat ourselves to a pudding after our picnic on the way up (with our Ordnance Survey PACMAT of course). It's a very pleasant walk through the trees, in the shade a lot of the time, up from the picturesque village L'avancher. As you get closer to the Chapeau the path opens out, crossing a small waterfall stream, getting steeper until you arrive at the Chapeau.

 

We were ready for some picnic pudding, but not having reserved a place, it was all full. We spent a little time admiring the fantastic views and drinking some chilled water before deciding to carry on on the path above. 

  

The path above is steep and sketchy, in places we had to use ladders. Some sections were a little alarming... "don't look down"... Finally we arrived at the Tete de Prapators, very thankful to find a wide enough flat area for us to be able to sit and have a snack in the shade of the trees.

From here we walked down. It seemed easy, leading us to the meadow below pendant bowl. .

After a shady snack stop at the bottom of the meadow we felt ready to head down to the valley, and one of our favourites, the Prarie in Les Bois. What a perfect place to relax in the shade of an umbrella, with the view of Mont Blanc, after a very long, but lovely day.