For the past few weeks the sun has shone and we’ve been out walking almost every day, spending every evening on our terrace and having plenty of barbeques. Down in the valley it has hit 30 degrees but it’s pleasantly cooler up in the mountains. Jonathan has taken the opportunity to develop his skills with the drone and has taken some incredible photos. The one above is taken above our valley as it snakes down to Bourg St Maurice and the mountains beyond. Below are two of the high altitude lakes – Lac du Chevril and Lac de Roseland which are both full to the brim with snowmelt after all the snowfall we’ve had last winter.
We had hoped to do lots of cycling as well as walking but my bike has completely scuppered our plans. I’ve had seven punctures of my rear tyre in just six outings, a few after only riding a few metres. We’ve made several trips to specialist bike shops, replaced tyre, inner tube and wheel rim tapes but all to no avail. Despite the experts assuring us there was no problem with the wheel, a replacement seemed the logical option, but sadly my bike is so old it was hard to track down a new wheel to fit, so we plan to get new bikes next year. We may even buy them back in England and do another cross France cycle next summer!
Still, the walking has been incredible. The pictures above illustrate a magnificent route in the Beaufortain, commencing at Fort de la Platte, which is a hairy drive up the mountain from Bourg St Maurice. There’s then a steep climb to Col de la Forclaz and beyond that the Cinq Lacs de Forclaz. On the way up we were stunned by the scenery, and even more so when we spotted a Lamageier circling above. We were also delighted to see thousands of tadpoles at the shallow lake edges – it would be fabulous to see all the tiny, high altitude frogs emerging. We thought that all of this couldn’t be topped until, on the descent, we spotted six golden eagles circling on the thermals. We’re not twitchers but know that golden eagles are solitary birds usually only seen in pairs at most. However, we’ve contacted a twitcher friend who confirmed that whilst unusual it’s not impossible!
We had another fabulous walk up to Refuge de l’Archeboc, in a valley that rises just above Ste Foy. This gave Jonathan lots of opportunity for taking drone footage, especially when we were having a well earned cold beer at the Refuge. We also returned to Ville des Glaciers, this time to complete the walk up to Col de la Seigne on the Italian border, where the views of Mont Blanc are spectacular. It’s part of the Tour du Mont Blanc, a circular walk that takes around two weeks passing through France, Switzerland and Italy. We may make an attempt when we’re here for the whole summer next year. This time gave us lots of drone flying and photo opportunities.
After two weeks practicing with his drone, Jono has put together some of the clips to create his first drone video! It starts with me enjoying a cold beer on the terrace at the refuge de l’Archeboc.