Today was 12 miles of hiking and 2,700′ of climbing. Totals for the journey are:  191 mi hiked and 24,300′ climbed.

We’re starting to get up in elevation! Two days ago, we were at the Rhone, 500′ above sea level. Today, we hit 4,000′ of elevation!

And the views? Top of the world!

The journey, while definitely uphill, was also spectacular!

Our stay in Bourg-Argental was perfect, a medium sized village with enough supplies for us to restock, while still remaining charming.

And, of course, like all the villages we’ve visited in France, they had their war memorial.

Two things:  For us in the United States, the World Wars were tragic and many of our citizens died. But the war was never in our backyards or fields or towns. Here in France (like the Ukraine today), the war was in your face, in your 24 hour-a-day life.

The other thing to notice is that All of the names on the 3 vertical plaques are deceased from World War I. The small horizontal plaque in the foreground lists all the deceased from World War II. I asked about that in s previous trip and was told that, in WWI, there was a battleline between Germany and France for years and so many French (and German) soldiers died defending that line.

In WWII, Germany was much more ‘efficient’ and rolled through France before any defense could be mustered. From that point on, the French losses were only those in the “underground” resistance.

Enough for now … time for chores.