Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc the five-star way wasn’t something I had planned for this summer. In fact, I was going to be hiking the Fife Coastal Path the decidedly not five-star way with my tent and several macaroni cheese feasts – my adventure food of choice. But when Katie Crowe, PR Guru, phoned me up and said, ‘What are you doing in two weeks’ time? Do you fancy coming on an adventure with me through France, Italy and Switzerland. There’ll be big peaks but soft beds at the end of every night and three-course meals.’ There could only be one answer.

The Tour du Mont Blanc is one of Europe’s most famous trails. I knew of it from my days at RunUltra and covering the infamous race where the world’s elite ultrarunners take on UTMB and cover the 174km and 10,000m of elevation in under 24 hours. Suffice to say my pace was going to be a tad more moderate. Also the trip is highlights, so is shorter with less climbing.

Up up up on the Tour du Mont Blanc

Fast forward to day two and I am slogging up a series of ever-steepening inclines under a scorching France-in-a-heatwave sun, being overtaken by determined 80+ alpinists whose stabbing walking poles hold a terror all of their own. I am questioning my life choices when Tanya, the founder of Live Breathe Hike the company which is organising the trip catches up with me. ‘Not long now to the Col du Bonhomme and it’s undulating,’ she says cheerfully. She uses the word undulating loosely methinks, but the steepness soon eases and I have the breath to look up at the magnificent peaks that surround us.

We chat about the pleasure we have both found in living in different communities. She lives part-time in Nepal in her own flat in a family building – very like my experience in Imlil. Unlike me, she has achieved the extraordinary feat of climbing one of the 8000m peaks in the Himalaya and I hang on her stories.

I love my Atlas Mountains, but the extraordinary beauty of the Alps steals part of my heart. Snow glistens at peaks that are intermittently veiled with fast-moving clouds. A bearded vulture with a wingspan of nearly three metres hovers above us and we can look right down the valleys on either side of the col. Jason, our guide for the week, and fellow travel writer Amelia Duggan (award winning I should add) are waiting at the top and Jason gives us a tour of the peaks, naming each one and telling us its characteristics like they are dear friends. Amelia’s hair is blowing romantically in the breeze and looking remarkably coiffed and curled, ‘No, no I didn’t get up three hours early to blow dry it, I sleep in a jumbo foam hair roller like a banana,’ she says. She promises to read us some Coleridge later.

Baguettes and iced feet

Descending for lunch, we park ourselves feet first in a glacial stream. My puffy feet shrink back to normal size and I munch on my delicious baguette washed down with a chilled orangina, magicked up by Tanya. ‘This really is five-star,’ I think. Jason is excellent at giving us all the information about the walk and I know that he is right when he says we have broken the back of the day. However, he has been economical with the verité when he fails to mention the bruising pull up out of the valley after lunch. I drink four litres of water and don’t wee once. Sweaty Betty? I feel a brand ambassadorship coming on.

We finish the day in the car park where Críostóir is waiting to transfer us to the hotel. Cold wine and fizzy drinks, crisps, cheese and crackers are all laid out for us. He shoots up the rankings to my favourite person on the planet.

Ending a hard day’s walk with a good meal and a soft bed is something I need to aim for more often. All our hotels are charming but my favourite is overlooking Lac de Roselend. I haves a balcony almost directly over the water and as the sun sets, the reflection of the mountains sharpens to mirror image. We eat the local dish: tartiflette, a perfect storm of potatoes, cheese, cream and bacon. The kind of strenuous hiking we are doing gives you a free pass, though, all those calories will be burnt off on the next hill.

True five star

Having a good itinerary and being well guided are true luxuries. The Tour du Mont Blanc in peak season is busy. Over 75,000 people a year do the trail or parts of it. Live Breathe Hike have been operating here for years and their experience means that we get to have the best of it. We take variants where the main trails are a crush, there are gondolas to cut out grinding non-essential climbs/descents and Críostóir to transfer us along boring tarmac sections at the end. There is more than enough physical challenge and climbing but it isn’t a beasting. It is, in fact, a perfect blend of adventure and holiday.

Jason used to be a teacher and that pedagogical impulse is still there. Amelia and I scribble frantically to keep up with the fast facts.  I adventure to feel alive and to learn and I hoover up all the information. Did you know…..

Fast facts from the Tour du Mont Blanc

• All Swiss communes have their own underground bunkers, which, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, they have started restocking with supplies.

• A Moraine is nature’s biggest bulldozer.

• Mont Blanc is upside down. The oldest rocks are on top.

• Marmots have a guard on duty who sits on a rock while the rest of the group ambles around. If the guard marmot gives a series of sharp cries, it means that there is danger on the ground (probably humans), if it gives one long cry it means, ‘eagle – get out of here’ and they all dive for cover.

I may be a snail going up but as I get used to the terrain I start flying on the descents. The tracks are often smooth underfoot and I can’t resist breaking out my hunter gatherer trot and striking out. A tiny part of me does like passing all the people that passed me on the way up, but the much bigger part just wants to feel free and there is no greater sense of freedom than running down a mountain under a wide, open sky. I wait for the others at the Rifugio Elena and refuel with a half-litre of unpasteurised milk which has come from the herd of fat brown cows resting in the pasture beneath. The sound of their bells is a punctuation to our day.

High on the hills

If you read Heidi as a child, or later – no judgement, you’ll probably remember her descriptions of the wild flowers of the Alps and the sound of the wind in the tall trees. Pauline, who joins us for a few days, is a twinkly, young French woman who loves Ireland, the mountains and plants. She kindly speaks French with me and stops to save caterpillars from the path. She tells me the names of the flowers, ‘You can eat the seeds of this one in salads,’ she says, pointing out something that looks a bit like Queen Anne’s Lace, ‘and I use Millepertuis (St John’s Wort) to make massage oil – it is good for aches and also bruises.’

The camaraderie is a big part of the fun. Amelia and I bond over a shared love of fantasy literature and Katie’s infectious enthusiasm lessens the pain of a series of zigzags, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this, I love it, I love you,’ she carols up the hills.

What really matters

In the end, as always, the deep thing, the enduring thing, is the connection with nature that hiking brings. On the last day, I make space for myself to be totally alone ascending through a forest of spruce, fir and larch. The air is slightly damp, and the smell of the trees fills it. I can hear a marmot chirruping somewhere in the distance and a Scotch argus butterfly spreads its orange and brown wings on a warm stone. Breaks in the trees give me a glimpse of soaring alpine peaks. It is just me and the world that nature has gifted us.

I loved this adventure and recommend you check out Live Breathe Hike and the trips they do. If you’re interested, email Tanya (info@livebreathehike.com) and say you know me – she may do you a bit of a deal. She has a wide variety, suitable for every level of fitness. And let me know if you end up hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc the five star way.