It (really) doesn't have a car park but it does have showers, and having used those I drive the car off to le Biollay which the hotel recommends (see "practical information" for more) and am (as I belatedly realise) lucky to get a space there. Walking back is about 10 minutes and pleasant. We go round the building to the (unrelated) Bar Le Chamonix and play Big 2, the game of the holiday; read and write up. 19:30. Evening meal: to Le Serac, randomly selected from restos on the strip; we didn't fancy the Chinese because three of us were barefoot. Le Serac doesn't blink an eye when we play cards and the food is decent, but not cheap.
Taking pictures of Chamonix is for the tourists, and we're Serious Mountaineers, so I don't.
My original plan had been for a rest just overnight in the valley. But we're all feeling like we could do with a day off. So M phones the next hut - Couvercle - and shifts our booking by a night; and we then discover that Le Chamonix can accomodate us another night; so we're all set for a whole day and two nights off.
2019/07/24: Wednesday: day off. Still very hot; do precious little all day except relax in the shade, though M and I go for an earlyish morning stroll up the river getting perhaps half way to La Praz before it becomes too hot. Before b'fast go off to the car to retrieve map+guide, and check that all is well: it is. There's even a sort of "overnight guard" in the carpark, in that someone's old VW camper with the pop-up tent is set up.
View from the bar towards the local church. Note that the fan is not just blowing air, it has a water feed from the tube and was sending out a delicious cooling light spray of water droplets. E explores town and later returns with tales of the vast rank upon rank of outdoor shops. D is more stay-at-home. I read Bagehot.
At some point I go to visit the Maison de Montagne / Bureau des Guides which is just next to the church, but don't find it very sympa. They do show me a pic of the ladders up to Couvercle, which seem a bit worrying, but I internalise this and don't bother anyone else. As it turns out, they were fine.
Evening meal: to the Chinese place by the river, which was very good. We went back later.
Night view: from the balcony, a flawless blue sky darkening; above, the pylons to Plan de l'Aiguille, and a light from the Aiguille du Midi. That's for the future.
The trip up to Montenvers and Couvercle is another story.
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