On one of our hikes in the Summer last year we saw this strange white building in the forest. When back home we checked the map and the searched the internet, and found out what this curious architectural project, built in 1966, was. Here you can read all about it, its the history and the current state.
When we learned that the place can be reserved for overnight stays, and comfortably accommodates four people, we invited our Finnish friends to join us for a short vacation: the rent is somewhat pricey and the minimum number of nights to be booked is two, so we thought it was better to split the costs between two couples. It was also more fun to share this unique experience.
Tomi named the building “Moomin House” because of its white color and blob-like shape, but the “official” nickname is La Baleine (the whale). The guesthouse goes with the name Le Balcon de Belledonne, which is kind of weird since it is located on the Chartreuse mountain, with the view over the Belledonne range. UPDATE: our friends’ daughter pointed out that more accurate characterization of the building would be Barbapapa’s house.
Weather-wise we were and were not that lucky; since one week low hanging clouds have installed themselves over our valley keeping the sun away and the cold air underneath (it’s called inversion). The clouds did not dissipate until the late afternoon if even then. The lucky side was that we did not receive any rain.
Definitely the best part, however, were the Fall colors! They were the brightest and the most varying we have seen in this area. Usually the Fall foliage has been muted shades of reddish brown with some yellow here and there, but this Fall it is full range of shades of yellow, orange and bright red. Especially the Chartreuse forests, mostly dominated by dark green spruce trees, dotted by patches of colorful trees made a lovely scenery and backdrop for our sightseeing. Had there been some sunshine the colors would have been absolutely fabulous. Unfortunately the foliage does not look as good in pictures as it looked in nature, but you may get the idea.
The original plan for this mini vacation was to drive somewhere on the Chartreuse for a moderate hike, but then we thought that our guests might see and enjoy more if we just drove to several places for short mini-hikes and village visits. In hindsight that was a good decision, mainly because of the fog and clouds.
We first drove to St.Pierre d’Entremont and from there over Col du Cucheron to St.Pierre de Chartreuse. From there we took the road following the magnificent gorge of the river Guiers Mort to St.Laurent du Pont. On our way we tried to visit the 500-year-old bridge Pont Peirant, but the access to the bridge was blocked; the wooden bridge used to access the old stone bridge was damaged and made uncrossable.
We finished the trip visiting a couple of destinations we had been to before. From St.Laurent du Pont we drove to the village of Entre-deux-Guiers and Les Echelles, and had lunch at the restaurant La Corderie there. The final destination of the day was to visit another old bridge Le Pont Romain in the historique site of Saint Christophe la Grotte (see pictures above). Despite its name the bridge does not date back to the Roman era, but is probably constructed in the 18th century. This bridge use to serve as the customs between Dauphiné (current day Isère) and Savoie.
Before driving home we went to a short run on the nature trail (parcours santé) in the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. Looking at the map we got an impression that the trail was practically flat, following contours around a hill, but the reality was something else. The trail actually climbed to the hill, and was probably hilliest route we have run for a long time, and the ascents and descents were really steep.
I finish this post with a couple of mentions about the restaurant lunch experiences with our friends. We seldom eat out anymore, even on our travels, since, honestly, we cook much better food than most mid-range restaurants here in France offer (on special occasions we opt for an upscale place but that is another story). This time there was an extra challenge due to one of our friends being vegetarian. We had some good experiences, though.
The first one was at the restaurant L’envol des Saveurs in our neighboring village. They did not have any vegetarian dishes in their menu nor in daily specials, but our server promised that the chef can be creative and come up with something ex tempore. And he did, and our friend was happy! The second experience was in La Corderie in Les Echelles. There also the server promised that the chef could scrape something together, but our friend found some vegetarian dishes in the menu, and chose an overly cheesy and creamy baked raviolis (a local specialty), and I think they were happy with it too! Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of their dishes, only some of mine: I ended up having fish as mains in both restaurants, Tomi had deer and chicken, and we shared beef tataki as an appetizer.
What a fun and magical short outing this was! We may even return when the spa/sauna section and the swimming pool will be finished. Maybe in the Summer, when this higher altitude (1200m) offers some relief from the heat at the bottom of the valley.