A long weekend in
Haute Savoie was energising with three contrasting days of walking culminating
in one of the best walks I have ever done.
I was with Les and
Vera, staying in their flat in St Gervais, Haut Savooie, France. Friday was a
cool cloudy day. We met up with local friends, Hubert who owns a book shop and
art gallery in Sallanches, his brother in law who is a wiry long distance
walker just returned from doing the Trans Europe walk to Santiago de
Compostella. and Angelika, a retired
management consultant. We walked up though the forest to a refuge where we had
a coffee break. We climbed up further
and could see the icy fingers of the glacier de Gowesance before having
a long descent into a huge glaciated valley with a summer village on the valley
floor. We then descended through the trees to the starting point. That evening
we had supper with Hubert and his extended family. He lives in a chalet like
home and I enjoyed the evening sun on Mt Blanc from his verandah. The conversation was mainly in French but
Angelika translated difficult bits for me.
On Saturday there
was heavy, heavy rain and even the market stall- holders in Sallanches were
dispirited. I shopped for cheese,
looking for my favourite local sheep cheese, which has a thick wrinkled white
rind enclosing a strong cheese and a other local Beaufort type cheeses made
with herbs. We lunched in a café and
watched the opening stages of the Tour de France in Corsica where the sun was
shining and the landscape was hot and dry – it felt climatically and
geologically a long way from the Alps.
The rain cleared a little by the end of the afternoon and we went on
another walk through forest by ski runs up to Col De Jeuillet Mist hung over
the treetops so it felt an enclosed world. On our return we looked round an
ancient hut and farm buildings from the forest dwellers long ago.
On Sunday we
walked a circular walk. We started with a steep ascent up to a bowl carved out
by glacier and water with steep sides and a refuge on the valley floor and
clearly a popular weekend destination with campers. It was north facing so it was cool and all in
shades of grey. We then climbed up the side of the bowl so that we would come
out on the south face. This was a steep climb and we went into the snow line.
Then we came out onto a beautiful grassy south facing platform with a breathtaking
view of the green valley with forest, Alpine habitation and Mount Blanc with
few clouds drifting around it. It was the
most perfect place for a Sunday picnic of bread, cheese and French radishes.
Angelika prepared these elegantly by scraping the red off the radish and for pudding
we nibbled fresh cherries. We then had a
beautiful descent, first a long traverse across a scree slope, Here the rock
was bare and one could see the ancient sediments piled up. We then walked across
fields of summer flowers with alpine orchids, blue grasses, different gentians
and yellow dandelions. We ended with a long walk through a forest with a cool
darkness and streams. Skye, the dog even after 6 hours walking wanted sticks to
be thrown for her. I enjoyed the
contrasts on the walk, the snow and rock on the shady north face and then the
abundance of the summer flowers in the sunny sections.
Haut Savoie feels
traditional and mountainous and I think about farmers living lives of
transhumance moving up to their summer huts; I wonder how much that happens
now? The buildings provide stroking contrasts. Many locals like Hubert and Angelika
live in traditional chalets and these are still being built. But the towns are dominated by modern blocks
of flats built for the winter tourist influx of skiers. The block where Les and Vera have their flat
is a huge 1920 Art deco tyro building with an amazingly intricate glass porch.
But it seemed sad that no modern chalets being built, iI would like to see
modern chalets which could create interesting contrasts.
Geneva looked
lovely in warm summer evening light and I reminisced about swimming in the
lake. My flight was delayed and I reached
home well after midnight, it was a struggle to get up for work the next day.
Diana Lockwood
July 2013
