8/17 Landry to Refuge Rosuel

We have discovered or at sense that unless there is a touristic / medical reason to do so, a day of complete rest is somehow counterproductive. There is the urge to get moving. And also it seems so much harder to shoulder the pack - painful to get the "relaxed" legs going again. We had a nine day stretch - some challenging- before our Geneva break and we both felt like we could keep on going. After Geneva and Chamonix it was tough to get started again.
So today was scheduled as a rest day but we decided to walk half a day up valley to a refuge at the entrance to Vanoise National Park. This made the following day a half day as well. So we started leisurely at 10am the heat was already rising. But the GR is found to the left of the freezing torrent and combined with the trees the temperature was excellent. There were a few steep sections and a few brief road segments, but the altitude once gained leads to nice level parts. At no point before the refuge was there an obvious place for drinks or food. The trees begin to thin and the warm air was scented with pine. There is a historical area where lead and silver were mined and a school of mining established late 1700s. Beyond this the trees are rapidly lost and they valley emerges magnificent. The stream is crossed - unfortunately - should have soaked my feet- and the huge car park is reached with the refuge nearby. The refuge is beautiful, recently built with a living roof. The room was modern with its own sink and 2 bunks. We sat on the terrace just before 2pm and had nice salads, an omelet, beer / water. No stress! Tammy suddenly says - they are here! It was our Dutch friends Sebastian and Suzanne who we'd last seen maybe 4 weeks ago! Sebastian s dad who was organizing their car shuttle was here too! We gad a nice reunion for a couple hours comparing experiences, who was where and when, etc. We hope they visit us someday but we certainly would want to see them in Holland! After they left we organized our room and much later our other bed was filled by two girls.
But late afternoon in the dry heat we sat on a rock and gazed up the beautiful valley at the mountain scene with glaciers and a huge waterfall surrounded by other smaller ones. As we watched, the sun moved behind us such that a rainbow effect was created and the reds slowly moved up the falls with the blues at the base. Below the refuge is a Vanoise park visitor center. We watched awhile, an interesting video about the reintroduction of a huge vulture relative whose diet is 80% bones! When other vultures are done it grabs the bones and takes them high to smash them on rock. They have a stomach record ph of 1 !
Our stomachs were filled with a good Tartiflette for dinner!