We chose to skip the chateau breakfast and ate at a patisserie in Frontenex, about halfway back between the chateau and Albertville.  Then we headed into the more rugged parts of the Alps.  We chose a road a little south of Albertville, based on how many zigzags there were on the map and the altitude of the top of the pass, which was 2,000 metres.  It took us approximately an hour to climb to the top of the Col de la Madeleine, 20kms from the village of La Chambre to the summit.  The road was narrow, it was steep in several places, there were no guard rails, and the scenery was spectacular.  As the driver, Steve didn’t see any of it because I wouldn’t let him take his eyes off the road!!!  We stopped several times to take pictures, then spent about another hour at the top taking more pictures and eating our lunch in the car (because it started to rain).  Thankfully, it stopped raining and started to clear before he headed back down, which took us about another hour to cover those 20kms.  (The bicycles probably did it in 20 minutes, and I’m not kidding! We found out later that the Tour de France goes through this pass.  There were many cyclists on the way up and down this day.)

From GoPro footage, Steve put a little video together, complete with some local musical accompaniment – it’s fun…

I also captured some photos…

   

   

    

   

That little jaunt up and down the mountain took up way more time than we anticipated, so we weren’t able to complete another route we had planned out.  Regardless, that excursion was well worth the time and we weren’t unhappy that we had to start heading back.  We were both so content to have chosen the Alps over Paris.

Unfortunately, when we returned home, we had an unsettling email from Yelena about the rapid decline in Chaos’ health.  After a phone conversation with her, we agreed with her recommendation that she move forward with the euthanasia plans we had discussed before we left.  She had already made arrangements to have a vet come to the house the next day and just needed our okay to proceed.  Needless to say, that conversation was difficult for all of us.