Day 11 - Col du Palet to Entre Deux Eaux - Manhattan in the Alps

In the middle of the night all the stars were out, but things had clouded over by the morning. We left the refuge and headed down from the Col du Palet towards Tignes. Straight away we were in the ski area, so there were chairlifts and the like, but it still looked and felt natural.

Then we headed over a little rise and, suddenly, like a slap in the face, there was Tignes below us; a huge abandoned ski-resort. From above we could see 10 tennis courts, 2 or 3 soccer pitches, a golf course, acres of car parking as well as high rise buidling. At Tignes we split of from the GR5 to join the GR55 for a few days and we had to walk through the completely deserted town - both sad and spooky. We passed a Club Med surrounded by weeds. I'm sure it's an efficient place to ski but the resort is placed high (2100 m) to get the snow and isn't based on any 'natural' or existing village. It really was quite a shock, especially just on the boundary of a national park (with super strict rules). 

Once we left Tignes behind the hiking was quite nice; some sun and clouds with a chilly wind. For a large part of it we were walking in a very barren, almost Tibetan valley below a glacier where there is some summer skiing. We arrived at our destination hut, the Refuge de la Leisse. Our 'welcome' was puzzling - there was no beer or red wine, the only showers were cold. The motivation of our 'host' became clearer right away. The hut was closing tomorrow, they were having a party (a party without beer?) tonight and they didn't want us there to distract them. So we moved onto the next hut, the Refuge d'Entre Deux Eaux where we got a real welcome, a decent meal and really enjoyed ourselves.