Vanoise National Park, France
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Leaving the world behind in the heart of the French Alps

Author’s note: This is a continuation on my series of trekking La Vanoise National Park in the high Alps of France. To see all posts in this series, click here.

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods; There is rapture on the lonely shore; There is society, where none intrudes, by the deep sea and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more.” -Lord Byron

Our first site inside Vanoise National Park, France.

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

I read this quote and couldn’t think of a more fitting way to begin my journey inside the heart and soul of Vanoise National Park. If you haven’t guessed by now, my preferred method of seeing and exploring a new place is on foot. Many of my recent travels abroad have involved hiking. I experienced the highs and lows of rural village life in the Himalayas of Nepal on foot. I explored the wild wind and crazy weather of the southern tip of Patagonia on foot. I followed the ancient Incan trail of knee-busting stone steps on foot. And, I explored glaciers, mountains and volcanoes of Peru, Guatemala, Iceland and New Zealand all on foot.

If I’m not moving, I’m not really there. I like to feel where I am. I like to see with my eyes wide open, the amazing beauty of this incredibly diverse and sensational earth and its people. I like to smell the flowers and feel the rough earth below my weary feet. There is no better way to travel the world than on foot.

Adventure Travel France Tour de Vanoise TRAVEL BY REGION Trekking/Hiking
Vanoise National Park, France
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Morning hike to Vanoise National Park

 

Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

We rose after a glorious, wine and french-food induced sleep to the brilliant sunshine blanketing Pralognan-la-Vanoise’s lush alpine valley. After a long, tiring journey, it felt like heaven to finally sleep. Our “rucksacks” (as the Brits call them) were packed and ready to go. My body and soul were ready, eager and anxious to begin. I could hardly wait to begin the journey.

Adventure Travel France Tour de Vanoise TRAVEL BY REGION Trekking/Hiking
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Tour de la Vanoise: Our starting point Pralognan-la-Vanoise

Author’s note: This post is a continuation of my series on trekking La Tour de la Vanoise in the French Alps. For previous post, click here. 

Lovely, quaint Pralognan-la-Vanoise, a mountain town located in the heart of Savoie in the French Alps.

After our unexpected afternoon in Geneva (for post click here), we returned to the airport to meet our guide Mark along with the other two guests joining us on our trek through La Tour de la Vanoise. Our group would be small, only four trekkers along with our own, personal mountain guide, France-based Brit, Mark of Simply Savoie.

Isn’t this what you envision a French Alpine village to look like?

Adventure Travel France Tour de Vanoise TRAVEL BY REGION Trekking/Hiking
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Sumptuous Savoie: The heart of Vanoise

Our week-long trek through the peaks and valleys of the French Alps took place in the beautiful eastern Rhône-Alpes region of France known as Savoie (pronounced “saw-vwa”). 

Logo of Savoie (Wikipedia).

Savoie, along with neighboring Haute-Savoie, has a long, fascinating history as a prosperous kingdom known as Savoy that was annexed by France in 1860. Savoy existed as an autonomous country for almost a thousand years and its traditional boundaries have not changed since the annexation (placed at the crossroads of the Alps in the eastern part of France, west of Italy and south of Switzerland. See map below).

 

Adventure Travel France Tour de Vanoise TRAVEL BY REGION Trekking/Hiking
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An unexpected afternoon in Old Genève

“She was already thinking of herself
as a kind of expatriate…not
smothered by what she believed to
be America’s puritanical and
materialistic culture, which she
had little patience for.
She saw herself more a European
soul, in tune with the thinkers and
artists she felt expressed her
tragic, romantic, freethinking view
of life.”
– Vicky Christina Barcelona

Photo taken as we walked up the stairs to enter historical, old Genève. August 2012.

Our transatlantic flight left Minneapolis on Friday, August 10th. My parents had flown in fifty minutes before from Tucson, Arizona. We were doing a swap. My mom was staying here in Minneapolis helping my husband look after the kids while my dad and I were boarding a non-stop flight to Amsterdam at approximately 7:30 pm.  I could hardly wait.

Adventure Travel Switzerland Trekking/Hiking
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Midtown Mania

During my three day trip to New York City for the BlogHer ’12 conference we stayed at the Hilton New York (the largest hotel in NYC) in vibrant, fast-faced Midtown.  As a travel blogger, I found it irresistibly hard to be trapped inside the jam-packed hotel in sessions all day long with 5,000 fellow bloggers. My curiosity and desire to explore got the best of me so I snuck out during the live Katie Couric interview and hit Midtown.

Thinking the coffee line at Starbucks would definitely be better across the street of our hotel, I crossed the famous Avenue of the Americas to yet another Starbucks, equally full with a queue of at least 20 deep. Wow, Starbucks must really rake in the money and I don’t even like their coffee (it is bitter, expensive and reminds me of a coffee shop version of McDonalds).

New York TRAVEL BY REGION United States
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The Power of One: Commenting for Social Good

This month, Shot@Life (a global campaign that provides life-saving vaccines to children in developing countries) has launched something spectacular: Blogust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCRLTkLJYNw

Every day throughout the month of August, Shot@Life will feature a post on why comments matter and how they build community and work to promote social good. An anonymous donor has generously agreed to donate $20 per comment.  That $20 is enough money to provide four life-saving vaccines to one child and vaccinate him or her for life.

One in five children do not have access to life-saving vaccines. Shot@Life is working to change that number by reaching that fifth child.
Photo Credit: UN Foundation

Since the launch of Blogust, fellow Shot@Life Champions including myself have done everything possible to spread the word through social media and get more people to comment. So far, it has worked in unimaginable ways and has been an unbelievable success. Over the weekend, we reached our first 1,500 comments meaning 1,500 children who would otherwise not receive these life-saving vaccines will get them. We have raised $30,000 reaching the initial donation commitment from our donor and we are only on Day 5 of the campaign!!!

Global Health SOCIAL GOOD
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Hike along the Split Rock Lighthouse Coastal trail

The dramatic view of Lake Superior at the end of the Split Rock Lighthouse Costal Hike

Back in early June, my family and I had the pleasure of spending a long weekend along Minnesota’s sensational, untouched North Shore of Lake Superior. I’d written quite a few posts about the gorgeous hikes we did in this area (to read them click here) but never had a chance to write about our final hike along the Split Rock Lighthouse Coastal Trail.

Adventure Travel Minnesota TRAVEL BY REGION Trekking/Hiking United States