The snow situation near here has been quite poor this winter, so we booked our last week of winter vacation in Les Saisies, Savoie department, which has been much more fortunate with snow. Today our plans received a major blow as following the prime minister’s speech yesterday, the ski resorts started closing, since winter sports constitute non-essential recreational activity (although ski lifts are public transportation, which is essential, and thus still running). So for now, we are waiting for the decision from our accommodation, if we can cancel it for full refund.

Yesterday we drove to the Southern Vercors to go hiking on the pasture around a minuscule family ski resort of Font D’Urle. The day was sunny but quite chilly because of the wind. No signs of  Spring could be seen at the altitude of 1500 meters. On our way up we briefly visited Mémorial de la Résistance en Vercors at Col de la Chau, near Vassieux. Of course, after the prime minister’s speech, the memorial was also closed.

The hike started with a long downhill in the forest, partly on an icy snowshoe trail, and then continued a long way uphill to the pasture. There we were met with some patches of snow, but nothing worrisome — hikers are warned about such a patches since they can hide underneath kettleholes, quite common in this area, or other kind of pits.

On our drive home we stopped at Saint-Romans to watch the last race of the Biathlon world cup season (which was also cut short because of the virus threat) on tablet, and learned that our star Kaisa Mäkäräinen had announced her retirement from international competitive sports just before the race. We will miss you, Kaisa!