One more week to go

After three weeks on the dusty trail, we find ourselves in St Etienne de Tinee, finally taking that promised rest day. It's a charming mountain village dating to 14th century with some 5-story buildings. The morning was capped off by thunderstorms, and looking at dark clouds and lightning, we were thankful to be eating a warm chocolate beignet in the doorway of a patisserrie. Yesterday's hike to St Dalmas Le Saveour, while very hot mid-day, was shorter. Spent night at a chambres des hote (bed and breakfast), a 400-year old house with original pine beams and thick walls made of rock and masonry. After another shorter hike to St Etienne the following day, who did we run into but Richard, the British hiker from the first night in Vanoise NP at the start. Richard also has been having a great walk but is finding temperatures further south to be quite hot, especially with his heavier backpack holding camping equipment. Tomorrow we'll push on toward GR52 variant trail to stay high up in mountains over next week until final day's thrilling descent to Menton and Mediterranean.

Kindle e-book is working out great. I've read three books so far and battery is lasting a long time. I downloaded over a dozen books to this 10 oz device before leaving, half of which I paid about $10 each and the other half were free. With the Patagonia cover, it feels like I'm reading a paperback.