We have not done much hiking this Spring since we were training for last weekend’s half-marathon race, which only Tomi ran. So, the good weather streak still continuing, we were looking forward to some easy Easter weekend hikes, the first to a waterfall on Plateau-des-Petites-Roches in Sain-Hilaire-du-Touvet on Sunday (6.30K […]
It’s about time for a quick post. We have had several weeks — maybe the whole March if not already in February — of warm and sunny weather, with daytime temperatures as high as +20°C. And now it is cold again and it is snowing, and it is going to […]
I don’t remember there having been so much rain, and so many days under a thick cloud cover (and inversion!) in December in any of the previous eight years as there has been this year. Earlier this week we had two straight days of heavy rain that caused flooding in […]
We have had (again) a long anticyclonic period that has caused inversion: a low hanging thick layer of clouds blocks cold and humid air near the ground, whereas the air above the clouds is warm and dry. This is very common in this valley at this time of the year. […]
For more than a week now we have been living in the fog, or covered in the clouds hanging as low as 700 meters, or both — it is hard to tell the difference really. Most days the visibility has been barely one hundred meters. Just in last two days […]
Those who know wines, especially French wines, likely are familiar with the wine growing regions such as Bourgogne, Côtes-du-Rhône, or Loire valley, but may not know that grapes are grown and wine produced also here in the Alps in Savoie and Isère departments. The nearest vineyards are less than half […]
From Aurillac to Pont-Saint-Esprit After we had already extended our stay in Aurilliac by two days, if was time to move on and start driving home — kind of. We had booked the first two nights in Pont-Saint-Esprit, a small town by the river Rhône in the department of Gard. […]
We wrap up the first vacation week with two scenic hikes; the first (10.6K in 3h 53mins, D+/D- 540m) from Col du Pertus (1309m) down to Mandailles (837m) in the valley of river Jordanne (the same river that flows through Aurillac), and back up, and the second (10.25K in 3h […]
On this hike (13.4K in 3h 30mins, D+/D- 360m) we expected a different scenery since it was going to be at the lower altitude by the lake, far from the mountains. Actually this hike almost did not happen at all; as soon as we reached our car and started driving […]