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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3074 |
17th September 2012 Hiking - Walking: Cirque St Meme, France Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: Distance Covered: Sunday 16th September – Mag’s Birthday :) then too much travelling and not finding things on map :( Did exercises and ate breakfast in the sun with the beautiful view and the sound of cow bells:) We set off on what was to be a bit of a muddled journey. To start off we couldn’t find the right road out of St. Claude then just on the outskirts we saw a signpost to a view point but the signs stopped (this was to be a theme of the day!) and we charged round a forest following another lost camper for a while! Found it eventually and it was a brilliant view: Carried on through great scenery and stopped for lunch at a view point which turned out to have the most amazing view of snow capped mountains. We were amazed when we looked at the table of orientation to see that it was Mont Blanc and surrounding peaks!!! It is unbelievable to get such a good view of them from there. Drove on towards a promised (by our map) Aquaduct – we drove round in circles and eventually arrived at a little museum which was free today as it is some sort of cultural weekend. We asked a very nice lady about the Aquaduct and it turns out it is not open to the public and that the first place we looked was correct! She invited us to look round an exhibition to Gertrude ? an American writer who fell in love with the Bugie area and stayed here for 20 years. She was a friend of Picasso and he painted her portrait. The actual museum was of an old house set out as it would have been in the past. Very nice Tried to find a spa/spring which she recommended but gave up with that when the steep narrow road looked a bit much for the van! Tried to find a Cascade which yet again the sign posts let us down on. When we had been round in circles about 3 times we discovered it was in the back garden of a big house, you could see it from the road and yes.... it was completely dry!!! Drove on to Lac Bourget which we visited in the Spring when we stopped at Aix les bains. This time we drove down the opposite side of the lake because it is a smaller road and we thought it might have more places to stop the night. We stopped at an Abbaye for a cuppa. It had been heaving (the culture day factor) but most people were leaving so after our drink we walked down to the lake through the grounds and met a really lovely young couple. He was a Nigerian lad from Basingstoke studying international relations at University in Geneva. His girlfriend spoke perfect English and was from Zurich but attending the same course as him. They were very chatty and we talked to them on the jetty and all the way back to the car park. We think his family were pretty rich from what he was saying and he was driving a BMW! We left there and drove along the road up in the hills overlooking the lake. We found a car park/viewing point which is directly above the Abbaye with a great view of the lake and Aix les Bains in the distance. It was dark when we parked and just as we were sorting out the bags etc., a vehicle slowed down and we thought it might be the police but it turned out to be another van exactly the same as ours which turned round and parked at the other end of the car park:) Monday 17th September - travelling and top walk **** sunny Woke up to a wonderful view of the lake through the back window :) Did exercises and had breakfast then set out to drive along the lake to Chambery. Did some shopping in Lidl (just as good as UK) and got some very cheap diesel. Got a bit lost trying to find the road we wanted to take towards Grenoble so put the sat nav on just to get through the town. After trying to send us to a different village with the same name (!) we eventually got the right one and got through quite quickly. Soon out onto a road with lovely scenery taking us through the Col du Granier where we could again see Mont Blanc in the distance but from a different angle. The road followed the Massif de la Chartreuse which was very dramatic and dotted with little ski resorts. We stopped at the Cirque St Meme and had our lunch in the sun next to a field of deep brown cows with the loudest biggest bells we have seen so far! We went for a hike up to possibly the best waterfall ever! It was really high and it was more like a scramble up than a hike! We met a really nice couple at the top, he was English and she was Swiss and they lived on the French side of Geneva. I took lots of photos at the top then we walked down with them chatting all the way. It was a lot easier route on the way back so we didn’t have to pay so much attention to our feet! They are staying in the hotel at the bottom tonight and going home tomorrow. We had a cuppa and continued our journey to Chamrousse where we skied in March. We want to do some of the hikes around here and know we can park under the lift with a nice view. We put the sat nav on again to get through Grenoble and other than a rather suspect short cut it did the job :) It looks very different in the summer but there is a tiny bit of snow left on one of the peaks to the left of us. We had carbonara for tea and played phase 10. Mag actually won – her first – the scores so far are me 3, Mag 1 and a draw! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3972768310279.2154244.1012660562&t ype=1&l=f605c0a128 |
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