It is the time for another post of our hiking holidays in the French Alps. This is mainly just to share pictures, since nothing exciting happened during those hikes; we barely saw another human being during them. The most thrilling events were the goat encounter on the second day, and when I almost stepped on a marmot when on our way to Col de Bousson. I did not see the animal until just two meters away when it started lazily moving away.
So, this past week we returned for a week to Cervières in Hautes-Alpes at the altitude of 1700 meters. Our first visit was a short skiing weekend in Winter 2017. We stayed at the same cosy Airbnb apartment that had undergone a complete renovation. The romantic pellet stove had been replaced by electric radiators (which were not that nice) but we were quite happy to have both a washing machine and dishwasher, and a large fridge (since the nearest grocery shopping was 10 kilometers away in Briançon).
The reason we love this area of the French Alps so much is that we can find both very walkable trails and gorgeous views at the same time. The problem with the mountains around Grenoble is that we just get one of those at a time: walkable trails travel in woods that are not very scenic but mainly thicket, whereas the trails with views are steep and often travel on edges of cliffs inducing vertigo, or they are so rocky (and steep) that one needs to pay attention at every step to avoid tripping, sliding, or falling down — it is impossible to enjoy the scenery if you have to look at your feet all the time!
During the week we made six hiking trips, altogether 71 kilometers in 23 hours with total ascent and descent of 3550 meters. We had a lot of sun every day, no rain but strong winds on some afternoons. Towards the end of the week the daytime temperatures rose to +30°C, and the dust from Sahara blurred the view. Overall it was a very successful vacation!
Sunday: Le Laus (10K in 2h 35mins, D+/D- 471m)
The village of Le Laus is located about two kilometers from Cervières to the direction of Col d’Izoard (2360m) that is a frequent and iconic mountain pass on the Tour de France. This was where we went skiing a few years ago, and that’s where we went for our first hike. We wanted to do the loop of the botanical trail of Laus (‘Le sentier botanique du Laus’), but never found the starting point, so we just had an easy stroll in the pine forest. This is also one of the reasons we love this area of the Alps: the forests are mostly conifers, they are dry and smell so fresh!
Monday: L’Alpe du Pied – L’Alpe Haut (7.90K in 3h 30mins, D+/D- 648m)
This hike started to climb directly from the door steps of our Airbnb apartment, first to Eglise Saint-Michel (the title picture on the top of this page) and then to the Chapelle Saint Marie-Madeleine. Our first challenge was to pass through a herd of goats; first it looked like they wanted to escape and give us a way, but then they just stubbornly stood on the trail. When we finally made it through, the youngsters started to follow us, while the elderly and the babies stayed behind. Every time we stopped to take pictures, the goats stopped to eat. We could not sneak away from them until the Chapelle, but still we could heard their ‘Baaaa!’ a long time behind.
This was a scenic and quite an easy hike, except one tricky section when coming back. There the trail was so steep (and narrow) that we could not walk down, plus there was an almost horizontal drop of tens of meters to our left and a rock wall to our right curving above our heads. So, we dropped down to our butts and crawled down on all fours — there was practically nothing to get hold of since the rock on the right just kept crumbling. Anyway, we survived! The section can be seen near the middle of the last picture above.
Tuesday: Marais du Bourget (16.9K in 4h 30mins, D+/D- 492m)
This was another hike that started directly from our doorsteps in Cervières following the river Cerveyrette upstream. The destination was the wetlands of Bourget.
Wednesday: Col-de-Bousson (7.3K in 2h 50mins, D+/D- 360m)
Today’s hike was roughly in the same area as the previous day, but headed to the mountain pass at the Italian border instead of staying in the valley (as yesterday). We also did not start walking from Cervières, but drove to the parking lot of the wetlands of Bourget. This was a super easy and beautiful hike on the alpine pasture amongst colorful flowers. When driving back to Cervières the same goats blocked our way again; it was strange that they were not afraid of the car at all.
Thursday: Puy Saint Pierre – Puy Richard – Puy Chalvin – Puy Saint André (10K in 3h, D+/D- 530m)
This time we headed to the slopes East of Briançon. This was another scenic and relaxed hike with great views to the valley of the river Durance.
Friday: La Casse Desert – Col du Tronchet (9.5K in 3h 37mins, D+/D- 697m)
This was another scenic, but more challenging hike — because of the elevation gain — traversing in a pine forest before taking a steep descent to the village of Brunissard, where we had lunch, and then climbing back up to La Casse Desert below Col d’Izoard.
Saturday: Jardin botanique alpin du Lautaret (2100m)
Now, the week was over and so was hiking. Before driving home we went for a short run in the morning by the river Cerveyrette, first downstream and then upstream (6.8K in 1h, D+/D- 224m). On our way to Grenoble, we visited the alpine botanical garden at Col du Lautaret. It was the third visit in the garden, and we are sure we will be back!