As much as I love the landscape of the Massif Central, I think the Matheysine Plateau in the French Prealps in Southern Isère is one of the most scenic areas I’ve visited in France, with the silhouette of the magestic Grande Tête de l’Obiou as a backprop. Soon after returning […]
Usually in Helsinki we stay in quiet, old neighborhoods as close to the city center as possible. That’s what we did this time for our first stay, but for the final stay we booked an Airbnb apartment in Vuosaari, the Eastern terminus of the metro line. Early in our vacation […]
This year we returned again to the Briançonnais region in Hautes-Alpes for our winter/spring vacation. However, we did not stay in the Serre Chevalier valley as we usually have done, but booked the accommodation in the village of Villar-Saint-Pancrace in a different river valley, namely that of Durance, which by […]
Our first day in Mende (Lozère) was cloudy and drizzly, and it was the only such day on our vacation; the rest were blessed with plenty of sunshine. We climbed to Le Croix de Saint-Privat located on the top of the mountain Mont-Mimat (1068m). On our way to the cross […]
We spent the extended weekend in the spa town of Aix-les-Bains in Savoie department to escape, not the heat this time, but the wardrobe renovation in our second bedroom, currently serving as an office. We had already donated the old wardrobe to a young couple who took it down and […]
This was not at all the hike we had planned from Super Collet (at 1640m altitude), only half of the distance and partly different route. After about two kilometers into our hike, we got apprehensive of the dark clouds that were gathering above us (it was perfectly sunny when we […]
Let’s see how many heat escapes we need to take this summer. We have orange warning (the second highest level) for heatwave on this weekend and the early days of the coming week. Daytime temperatures are expected to climb close to +40°C. Yesterday we escaped the afternoon heat to the […]
We had a very sunny January, but thereafter the Spring has been dull with cloudy days and a lot of rain. Therefore, we have not done much hiking. We started a marathon training program instead, this time with a more modest goal in mind; we have been following a sub […]
Yesterday we returned to the same rough area where we hiked three weeks ago. This time we started from a different place, at parking of La Doua. To reach the parking we drove several kilometers on a very rocky unpaved road, constantly fearing of getting a flat. The first part […]