Pas du Roc

Longly awaited holidays have come… And so, the very first free day, we set off on a trail, no matter the weather. We chose Pas du Roc – a very nice walk that had it all: forest switchbacks, waterfalls, delicate rock passages equipped with chains and field plains. We also got a bonus – thick fog, lots of mud, remains of snow and slippery stones. But it made the trip really interesting – kind of mystical even. I was on a lookout for fairies or dwarves (I believe that if they were to show up – it would be on a day like that) – but didn’t spot any of them. Next time 🙂

We went in a group of nine people so it was a lot of fun for us. A forest passage soon ended and the real game began! On our left we had a vertical rock equipped with chains, on our right we had… milk void! Since we didn’t see a thing we could have imagined what was on our right. One sure thing: there was a chasm.

After this challenging passage we reached Pont de Pierre – a little bridge right over a stunning waterfall. Again, it was special to watch the water disappear in the void…

Normally Pas du Roc was reached there but we decided to continue up to reach Champ Laitier (the milk field – that day it was indeed very milky – you will see in a moment). We were a bit surprised to learn there was snow on that altitude (it was at  ~1300 m). Surprise turned into amusement quite fast as we started a snow ball fight.

 The milky field: (use your imagination to figure out what’s behind us)

Since the milky field has became a milky swamp, full of little streams, mud and no view whatsoever, we soon turned back and started the descent which turned out to be way more difficult than the route up.

Visibility became a bit better on our way down so we could feel more of a vertigo.

Pointe de Miribel (1581 m)

Ladies and gentlemen – our first family hike. I really hope that my child(ren) will share my passion for mountains. A memory of my parents taking me on hiking trips is really a joyful one. For the moment it’s a bit too early to say if Wojtek enjoyed the trip or not, nevertheless it was his first and we will remember it for long.
Obviously, for the first time we chose something very short and easy. In fact, we drove more to reach the starting point than we hiked 🙂 Still, it was nice to go out and to have a walk in different surroundings, especially that nature has just woken up and we could admire different colours of flowers.

What was special about the route were the monuments erected along the way to the top and on the summit. The view was also nice – perhaps not the most spectacular (it was rather low-altitude hike) but still nice because we could see a 360-degree panorama. All in all I see this trip as a success and looking forward to the next ones with our bonhomme 🙂

 

Fête de la Tulipe in Morges

Have you ever seen 120 000 tulips of 300 different kinds? We now have 🙂 Fête de la Tulipe in Morges is an annual event attracting lots of people – and not without a reason. A local parc is turned into an ocean of colours and scents. It’s truly spectacular – I never expected it to be so beautiful.
The whole event lasts for over than month and now was the best moment to go and visit the park as nearly all of the flowers were in full bloom composing a remarkable mosaic.

 (I know I look a bit odd in my warm coat on a day like that – that morning was rather grim, but when we went out in the afternoon it got sunny and I soon took the coat off).

I really liked the combination of tulips and the tranquility of the lake and the surrounding mountains. In fact, we decided not to limit ourselves to the park and wander down the footpath by the water, enjoying the sun, more tulips, chic swiss lakeside mansions, more tulips, yachts, more tulips and the shy which was awesome that day. Oh yes, I forgot the castle! Every little village around has a castle.

When we finished the promenade stroll, we came back to see the tulips again and take even more photos.

FestiChoc in Versoix

„Land of cheese and chocolate” – that’s what I call Switzerland. And it’s true, these two goods are relished by Suisse citizens. One of its evidence is FestiChoc – the festival of chocolate that takes place in Versoix, close to our place. This year it was already a 10th edition! We couldn’t miss it.
We started our walk by the Favarger chocolate factory. When I was here in 2010 and was lucky to get a ticket to visit it and see with my own eyes how  chocolate is manufactured. This year we skipped this attraction, it would be difficult to manouver through the machines with a pram 🙂 We also didn’t hop on a chocotrain – although I proposed we could have hop on our pram and catch the train from behind to have a free ride 🙂

The venue was really big. There were marry-go-rounds, face painting, a lot of buvets, chocolate sculpture exhibition and, last but not least, a huge tent full of chocolate makers showing, giving away and selling their chocolate.

We obviously had our treats too – do you think Radek could calmly go past a chocolate fountain? 🙂

Montagne de Sous-Dine (2004 m)

Yet another snowshoe hike this winter (however I need to chose higher and higher peaks in order to have snow) – Montagne de Sous-Dine (2004 m.). I set off with a colleague around midday, first through the forest with little snow (definitely not enough to put the snowshoes on). Surprisingly, there were little people on the route so we could enjoy the wilderness of the paths. Montagne de Sous-Dine is situated on a plateau, which makes it possible to reach it with many different routes.
When we got out of the forest we saw beautiful fields of snow, either untouched or paved with different prints (animals, skiers, hikers etc.).

At some point we were able to see an already breath-taking panorama of the surrounding mountains, nevertheless it was still far from our final destinations so we continued on hiking up to the cross which is situated 8 metres below the peak.

 

We spent some time by the cross, admiring the view on the Alps and Mt Blanc (fortunately it was a perfectly clear day). The actual top of Sous-Dine was situated just a couple of meters ahead and to me looked pretty… mighty. I was even a bit afraid to approach it because you never know what might happen with snow caps like that. But in the end we decided to go back by a different route and we needed to pass by the peak anyway.

An ominously looking peak of Sous-Dine (Mt Blanc in the background):

Our way down was much more fun and off-road than the one up. Some of the parts were really steep, but whoever did snowshoeing knows that it can be a real fun running down the hill in a fresh snow with racquettes on. And it was for us too! We were not so sure about the route so we just followed someone else’s footprint. Having lost our way just once, we came back to the car. It’s a pity we didn’t find Trou de la Pierre passage – a footway that goes through the rock (looks like a whole in the stone). Well, at least I will have a motivation to come back here in summer.

 

  

La Bourgeoise (1770 m)

Today I went with a friend for one of my last raquettes hikes in this winter. Due to high temperatures snow was very wet and heavy and if the weather continues on an astonishing 20 degrees level, soon there will be no sign of white at this height.
Our destination today: 1770 m pour la Bourgeoise – a nice round walk with a magnificent panaroma over an Haute-Savoie massif.

An ascent was very mild with a constant view on the Samoens valley. Pretty soon we reached La Bourgeoise cross where two trails met: for snowshoes hikers and skiers. We enjoyed the views and stopped for a small picnic there.

For a descent, we first came down the same road in order to soon join a different trail that lead alongside a skiers’ route up to le col de Joux Plane where we parked the car. We passed by a lot of families with children, some did the track in backpacks with their parents, some had tiny snowshoes and other slid in sledges. I hope that some day I will do this route with my little Wojtek.

Geneva Motor Show

As every year during my stay in Geneva I went to Geneva Auto Salon – one of the biggest car shows in the world. I’m a big fan of motorization so this show is something that I am looking forward to every year. Unfortunately, this year there were only few interesting car premieres.
For example new Fiat 500 by Renault 😉

New Lamborghini Huracan:

And some new classics:

Col de Cenise (1787 m.)

Today I went for a snowshoe hike with a couple of friends – Agnieszka and Rafał. We chose Col de Cenise (1787 m.) for our destination. It was more of a walk than a real hike – with only 500 m of elevation and the temperatures so high it felt like summer up there. In fact, there were people hiking without proper clothing, hoping to get a tan. The route lead through a beautiful valley between the mountains I am ashamed to admit I don’t know names of 🙂 We reached the cross within 90 minutes and spent there some time picnicking and enjoying the sun.

Since we still had some time and a lot of power left, we decided not to end our trip with the col. Instead we went a bit up to see what’s behind the hill and then we headed towards the rocks, off the firm route. This was good choice because the surrounding became less crowded and way more wild and beautiful. Also, the snowshoes came in handy at last. It was real fun to shove through virgin snow, making almost the only footsteps around.

Our way back lead through the footsteps of the hills. We walked practically alone and needed to watch out for snow caps that formed by the wind and could easily drop causing a small avalanche that would be dangerous for us. We tried to keep away from such places although they looked really spectacular. Fortunately, we managed to take a couple of photos of such overhangs.