Blog Ani i Radka
Bastille Day (14 July) is widely celebrated in whole France. In fact, every little village has its own concerts, celebrations and of course – fireworks. We went to Ferney Voltaire to be a part of it. At Château de Voltaire celebrations were at its best. At 22.30 (I was surprised by the punctuality) fireworks accompanied by classical music started. That was a real treat. We watched them from the castle’s garden hill, they looked stunning.
Today I took my brother and his friend to see Fer-à-Cheval. It’s a huge limestone amphitheater of mountains and waterfalls. There are a couple of routes to walk – we did the easiest one: an 8-km-circle in the valley (mostly flat). Even though at first the air clarity was not perfect and in July some of the waterfalls have already dried up – the view was magnificent and the walk very pleasurable. At some time we even dared to dip our feet in a cold brook – perhaps it sounds trivial but it was a real challenge with the water as cold as a couple degrees Celsius.
At some point we reached a huge waterfall splashing heavily just a couple of meters from us. It was immerse and gave us a really nice chill on a hot day. Bartek was a daredevil – he stepped into cold water to be closer but didn’t make it long. The water was freezing and the air wave rather tremendous.
We reached the furthest point in the circle where we had to turn back and go at the other side of the stream. We sat down in a shadow and had some lunch and then we moved on down the route to see (and touch) the glaciers. That was pretty awesome, yet another point to cool down on a very hot day. Yep, that’s snow by 32 dg. Celsius.
Then the path moved on mildly through the rest of the valley and later in the forests. It was a very pleasant walk and I’m sure I will do it again in spring when the waterfalls are even more prominent and plentiful.
Le Reculet is a fun mountain for Genevian area inhabitants because in principle you can climb it after work. Today we had some free time so I took my brother and his friend for a walk in the mountains. They finished tired (after whole day of sightseeing it wasn’t that easy to climb) but satisfied. And for me… Yet another season at Le Reculet. Amazing, every time I go there there is something new (this time these were the yellow blossoming trees).
This week we have guests – Radek’s brother and his friend are visiting us. So for the weekend we set out to Annecy, a lovely village close to Geneva. There was Les Noctibules festival ongoing, although to be frank, we didn’t benefit at all from that, because we didn’s stay long enough to go and see the concerts.
Our first destination was Annecy beach. The place is situated on the shore of the Annecy lake, so with the recent heat waves we had to take advantage of that and refresh ourselves in a chilly water. We also passed by the Annecy cathedral where we parked our car, went pastAnnecy chateau and had a look over small but lovely marina.
Properly chilled by the water we went on to see the old town of Annecy. Narrow allays, colorful buildings, blooming bridges – that’s the spirit of Annecy. The town is well known for its beauty and many people choose to live there over Geneva. We strolled a bit through the lovely passages, grabbed an ice cream and moved on to the promanade – yet another treat for tourists.
The promanade is situated along Lac Annecy shore and is simply beautiful. One can stroll slowly admiring the lake and water leisure activities with a perfect surrounding of mountains. The place is always full of life, winter or summer, and never stops to amaze.
We continued on down the promenade, to the less touristic place of Annecy and headed back to our car. It was still early so Radek decided to take our guests to Le Reculet (see another post).
This weekend I went for a hike to see Lac de Lessy situated in French Aravis mountains. Even before doing a first step, I knew it would be something special, because in order to get to the starting point I went by car through a marvelous pass situated at ~1700 m. Eventually, I started at 1350 m and ascended to 2050.
This is how my starting point looked like:
The route was rather mild in the beginning, I followed the trail which was well marked (I lost it only once and had to go past the field in order to get back on track). After a while I reached a viewpoint where most families with children stopped. It looked really nice, but it was only a prelude to what I was to encounter later.
I continued the trail side by side with a flock of goats hidden in a shade (it was a very hot day). I continued along the trail which led first through a hill-side and then through the ridge of the mountain with a spectacular view on the valley. The higher I got the more beautiful the view became. While on the ridge I was able to see both sides, Lac de Lessy on my left and valley and view on the Alps on my right.
In the last picture you can see Aiguille Verte („green needle”) on the left and Lac de Lessy on the right. Up to that point the route was a mild one, but the last 50 meters to reach the peak were much more difficult with last 10 meters I called a „Cursed Pass of Death”. I read earlier in the net that the small passage between the two teeth of the mountain is a very dangerous one and the Internet was right this time. I didn’t dare to cross the Cursed Path of Death. But the two peaks were situated just a couple of meters away, so although technically I didn’t claim Aiguille Verte, practically I feel like I did.
To descend I took a short and very steep way down. Although it wasn’t an official trail, a lot of people went that way and it saved a lot of time to me. All in all I made almost 8 km that day.
Today I got a bit further out of my city to climb Le Môle (1863 m). It’s a nice little mountain with a spectacular panorama that stretches out both, on the Alps and on Geneva. In fact, you can see almost 360° round when you reach the top. Moreover, an ascent to Le Môle is a mild one making it a perfect mountain for the season start, or for a pleasant walk.
In the very beginning of my climbing the weather seemed a bit ominous, but these were only the remnants of the past day which was very grim with a lot of rain. However, the higher I went the more sun I could see through the clouds.
When the forest finished I reached the plains and cows herd grazing on the grass. From that moment on the route became way steeper and more difficult, but also more enjoyable since the views became magnificent.
When the steep part was finished I was left with only a couple of meters left till the peak. However, I kinda lost my way to the peak and took a neighboring mountain to be Le Môle. But, as French say, c’est pas grave. Le Môle was just 50 meters and maybe a couple of meters higher, so I don’t feel like I missed anything. I rested for a while by the cross, admiring the Alps in clouds (with Mont Blanc showing oneself every now and then) and enjoying the breeze and then went down through Le Petit Môle path.
I guess we can finally say that winter over le Reculet is finished. It took some time for a spring to push through, but now snow in the mountains is, let’s say, occasional. In the past few weeks I went to climb that mountain a couple of times but each time is different so I really don’t mind following the same route repeatedly. I also like observing my form getting better and better, now it takes me much less time to reach the top than it used to.
So, this time on Le Reculet slopes:
– fields of daffodils replaced by fields of marsh marigolds
– Le Reculet cross no longer frosty
– wildlife safe and sound on the rocks and ready to pose for pictures as usual.
A month has passed, some snow melted and I was able to reach Le Recule top. In lower part of Jura mountains spring was already visible.
But because this May is the coldest May in Geneva region since 1908, when I went higher I still saw fight between spring and winter.
Closer to the top winter was wining. All this snow fell last week (it is quite unusual for this time of year).
Finally after three attempts I reached the pick of Le Reculet (1717 m). Cross on top looks really spectacular during winter weather.
Route down was very long and exhausting because of slippery snow and mud in lower parts.
Finally, clouds that had been covering the Geneva sky decided to give us a break and unveil the sun. Therefore we took the occasion and went out for a walk down the neighbouring vineyards. We started off from Challex, a quaint village on the French side. There is really something charming about those lovely little dots on a map, life seems so peaceful there, everything is neat and tidy and there are tiny offerings at every corner. What do I mean by offerings? Things that you watch with pleasure, that sometimes trigger your thoughts on different subjects like history, human mankind, even our lives. Such things make you stop for a while and absorb the beauty of being. Ok, maybe that description is a bit flamboyant, I admit, but if you once see those petits villages you will understand what I mean.
We found ourselves almost immediately on the vineyard trail and we made our way to Dardagny – a Suiss village of wine makers. The grapevine we passed by were not yet in full gloom, well, not even in partial gloom, I would say – they were just waking up from winter. I guess these hills must look spectacular in summer, we will definitely visit the place again when they start to flourish.
From Dardagny we followed the trail back to Challex. It was even more spectacular and, as the sun went higher, hotter than our first part of the trip. First we passed by the village, watching the wine-vaults, stopping by a chateau and admiring the flowery mansions scattered all over the place. Then we turned right, off the beaten track, through yellow fields and vineyards again. When we reached Challex I was already pretty tired, not used to the sun and a bit rusty in joints after winter, so we went back to Saint Genis for lunch.
The weather was awful today, so when in the evening the sun pushed its way through the clouds, we went for a short walk in Saint Genis. You can’t imagine our astonishment when it turned out that just a few meters away from our doorway we had camels, donkey, horses, lamas and various other creatures that came here with the circus. We could actually touch them, though they didn’t reciprocate our interest and were utterly involved in nibbling at grass. Anyway, for me – a city dude, as well as animal fan – such proximity of oriental creatures was awesome.
