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19th March 2015 Hiking - Walking: Essert Romand to Graydon + around La Chappelle d’A Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: Thursday 19th March – Hike ***** sunny – Essert Romand to Graydon + around La Chappelle d’Abondance Just a note to start with about where we are, we are in a small car park in Essert Romand where the road to Graydon has been blocked because of snow and avalanche risk. In the car park there is an English car with skis on and a Spanish car with its back window smashed in. Last night there were a couple of land rovers with skiers in that turned and reversed up the blocked road and a mini moke which came down, turned round and went back again – all very curious! We had our breakfast then set out to walk up to the Chapel at Graydon. It was a very steep road which soon turned to snow up through the forest. No need for racquettes today though. About quarter of a mile up the road there were some four wheel drive cars – including the land rovers from last night - and some skidos parked. There were no buildings anywhere near so we assumed they must leave their vehicles there and walk up to the village. We carried on up the very steep road, coming to the village of Les Bovis after about an hour. There were a few chalets here but the place is deserted. At the end of the village there was a huge chalet with lots of skidos parked outside and it looked as if it was the only inhabited building in the entire area. We carried on walking for another half an hour up through the beautiful valley until we finally came to the Chapel at Graydon:) Great to think that we saw the chapel from above and thought we would try to find it and today we did and without very much hassle at all. Surprisingly for around here there are no racquette marks and no walking signs so there haven’t been very many people up here this winter. We had a walk around the chapel but it was locked so we couldn’t go inside. We sat on the bench and had some water and a good old Lidl version of a snickers which is our favourite! We enjoyed the view and the absolute silence apart from a few birds (wagtails mainly). Set off back down the road and as we reached the big chalet two girls with snowboards came out. They were English and very chatty so we were able to satisfy our curiosity from last night. The girls were staff at the chalet Le Grand Joux which is owned by an English woman who lives in Spain (hence the Spanish registered car with the broken window – broken when one of the members of staff reversed into a land rover!). It has 10 bedrooms and offers luxury accommodation with a hot tub out the back. They offer spa afternoons to use the tub – 75 euros and 6 course dinner deals for 80 euros! They take the clients skiing by taking them down to the land rovers on skidos or in the mini moke but this morning’s clients were taken up in a helicopter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had heard the helicopter just after 9 and thought someone must have broken their leg on the first runoff the day but no it was rich people getting a lift to the slopes!! The girls gave us a card so we will have to look it up on the internet when we get home. They whizzed off to get their snowboards waxed on a temperamental skido which lurched past us with them both waving goodbye! Absolute madness in the middle of nowhere!! We carried on walking back to the van which took us about an hour and 20 minutes. Packed up and drove off down the valley, meeting the Thonon/Morzine road and then turning off to go through the Vallee d’Abondance. We followed this scenic route to the ski resort of Abondance which to be honest was a bit of a dump and on to La Chapelle d’Abondance which was a lot nicer:) We parked up in the car park for the bubble lift which takes you up and over to ski on the swiss slopes of Torgon. We are hoping to do that tomorrow:) We are looking down the valley over the cross country skiing/pieton pistes towards La Chapelle village. We had our lunch then went for a walk along the tracks by the River Dranse to the village and the tourist information (where neither of the ladies attempted to speak to us! That’s very unusual for France:(). Back to the van for tea and watched a few cross country skiers going round the course along with the piste basher and even one arriving in the dark and going round with a head torch!!! photo gallery here |
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