Yesterday was indulgence day, or according to my Angel Card for that night "Abundance" (yes Mum, exactly the same type of angel card that we had in England). After a lazy morning online and staying out of the rain we had a wonderful fondue. A pot of melted cheese, a few chopped onions and wine sat in the middle of the table, and Mike, Sandra, Levi, Sarah and I dipped pieces of bread and apple in. It was really delicious and though I felt full pretty quickly I kept going till it was all gone because it was just that good. I even had another shot of Kirsch, but I did that to show I could, not because I like the stuff.

   After lunch the five of us plus Jill and Magdelana drove to the Caillers chocolate factory and sat through a really terrible short film which basically showed that even the village idiot can get a girl if he uses chocolate as his bait. We saw just one room of the factory and then were led straight into the tasting room. Mmmmmm, chocolate, free chocolate, lots of free chocolate. I sure was glad I brought a bottle of water with me, otherwise I would never have been able to eat as much as I managed to that day. My favourite types were the white and plain milk, so I had extra of those. We staggered back to the car all feeling bloated but satisfied. The next stop was the Maison Blanche vineyard. More people joined us. Cab and Vallory, Pat, Luke and Savannah (sp?), Mark, Tom and Helana, possibly more I'll have to check the photo. I don't usually like wine, but seeing as we had come all this way, and everyone else was enjoying a sip or two, I joined in and found a few bottles that I quite liked. Everyone came back to Jill and Pat's place for a pot luck dinner and sparklers (July 4th). I learned a few new French sentences and had a good talk with various people. Mike and Sandra left and though I will see them again in just a few weeks to pick up some of my stuff from their place, Levi and Sarah won't see them again this year, so it was a sad farewell.

   Today Mark and Francene came with Jill, Levi, Sandra and me to France. we drove right to Chamonix, the start of my Tour de Mont Blanc. During the last stretch I was able to point out a few of the peaks and passes that I used walked past along the way, the wonderful sunshine really made everything look great. Unfortunately there were clouds on the top of the mountain and though we went up there and waited with the 'pilots' we were unable to do the planned tandem paraglides :-(

   After a while at the top, the guides said it just wasn't going to happen so we came down, took a few photos of the rest of the valley and headed home. We stopped along the way to play on some boulders beside the road and as Levi carefully traversed the side of a particularly large one, a young french boy came up and told him that it was much easier to climb up the other side. Levi kept going where he was, working sideways around the boulder, so the boy took the quick way up to show the silly foreigner how it should be done :-)

Near the launch point for our cancelled paraglide