France : one week in Lozère

We had the opportunity to travel to Lozère in the first week of september when everybody was back to work.  Add the fact that it is one of the less populated department of France with a lot of natural wonders and legends and you have ingredients to spend a wonderful week.

We were staying in a charming and typical stone house near La Canourgue. (http://en.gites-de-france.com/holiday-rentals-La-Canourgue-Cottage-Lzg305b,48G3052.html)

We found a flower nailed on the door of the barn. This caught of course our eye and we had to find out the reason why this flower was there. The flower is there to provide happiness to its inhabitants. The people of Lozere have done done for years. However, it is now forbidden to pick them up as they risk to disappear as lots of people started to join the tradition and bring the flowers home.

On the first morning after having some typical pastries we went to the town of La Canourgue. This convivial little town has kept its narrow stoned streets.

After enjoying the afternoon walk in the wonderful countryside we decided to go watch the sunset on the beautiful Tarn Gorge's.

On the second day we decided to do the via Ferrata of La Canourgue. Even though it is free of access we went to Accro Branche (http://www.accrobranches.com) to rent some equipment. We had to drive for 20mins from La Canourgue with about 10 mins off road but we finally got there. The course is really nice and in good shape. It's quiet high but it gives a wonderful view on the town of La Canourgue. It features a nice ZIP line and some really fun bridges of all sorts.

On the third day we decided to have a walk on the plateau of Aubrac. The scenery keeps on changing when driving up there. Arriving on the all we could see were meadows. The weather was changing and windy. We felt directly that it is a hard environment. We had the opportunity to see the beautiful cows of Aubrac with their light brown colour. The landscapes made us think of pictures we saw of Scotland.

On the last day we decided to go down the river on kayak. We started in La Malène with Canoe2000 (http://www.canoe2000.net/fr/). We only did the 4 hours trip which was just fine to enjoy the river and being able to have some ice cream when we got back in La Malène.  There are plenty of nice picnic spots on the banks. Next to the wonderful landscapes we were lucky to see a beaver swimming under our kayaks before disappearing in the woods.

Afterwards we took the car and drove up the river to Saint-Enimie. Even though it is a very nice town with a lot of narrow streets, it is the little town of Saint-Chely-du-Tarn that caught my attention. With this beautiful cascade coming out of the town and dropping a few meters below.

France : Chamonix and the Mont Blanc

Like last year I went to France for some mountaineering. However this time I went in the town next to Chamonix, Les Houches. We stayed at La Farandole (http://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com/en/offre/fiche/aiguille-du-midi-farandole/123840) which is more a place for holiday camps than a real hotel or bed&breakfast.

So we decided to have our evening meals at the restaurant Alan Peru in Chamonix (http://alanperuchamonix.com/fr) when we were in the valley. It was simple but really good. We had mostly typical dishes from the area.

We did some of the classics of the region : Mer de glace, l'Index and arrête de Cosmiques.

The last two days we went more South to Aussois in the region of Vanoise to climb a couple of Via ferata. We stayed at Fort Marie-Christine (http://www.fort-mariechristine.com/). This place is magic. Next to the fact that it's an old fortress it is also one of the best restaurant of the area. We had a view on all the valley from our room windows which was of course...a loophole. I really recommend this place.

France : Mountaineering in the Vosges

We arrived in Colmar on Friday, January 3rd.  This city is known for its beautiful coloured half-timbered houses but is also the city of Bartholdi who made the "Statue of Liberty".

We found out that it was a little to late for the Christmas market but all decorations were still hanging for our good surprise. The city is wonderfully decorated and the Christmas sphere was still present and made us want to come another year during Christmas holidays.

With the Christmas lights everywhere we decided to wander in the narrow streets of the city. We could see water everywhere. There is even a small place called 'Little Venice" which is really romantic. It's where we decided to eat for the evening. We had supper at "Le Comptoir de Georges" (http://le-comptoir-de-georges.fr/) which is first a butchery but they have seats in the back. They have a lot of local dishes. They don't look for fancy things but the food was excellent. Afterwards we went to our hotel "Les maraichers" (http://www.les-maraichers.com/) which is alright for a one night stop and has a diversified continental breakfast.

On Saturday we had rain and wind which wasn't the best start for our mountaineering training. There wasn't any snow under 1100m. The Vosges aren't really high with its highest peak at about 1500m. However with the little snow we had we could already start doing our "Snow corridors". It's really fun to walk around with ice axes and studs. After our activities wad had a well deserved rest at the refuge "Refuge des Trois fours" (http://chaletrefuge3fours.ffcam.fr/) where we had a warm welcome. The food was excellent and the ambience was friendly and everybody was telling his day.

On Sunday we woke up early to be able to enjoy the day. At our surprise it snowed all night and cheered us up for our next activities. We went back to the summit of the Hohneck where next to the snow that was falling we had the wind blowing really hard. This didn't of course stop us and we all had a wonderful time.

France : Mountaineering in the Ecrins

I had the opportunity to go mountaineering  for the first time  with the Belgian Alpine Club. We went to the region of the Ecrins near Briançon in the small village of Vallouise. We stayed at the gite "Le Baouti" (http://www.gite-le-baouti.com/) for the week and I would recommend it as a base camp to explore the region.

After learning the basics we went on the first day to La Meije (La Grave) where we climbed the "Col of Ruillans" (3200m). We cheated a little bit though because we took a cable car for most part of the climb.

On the next day we went to the refuge of the "Glacier Blanc" (http://clubalpin.briancon.free.fr/glacierblanc.html) at 2500m and did some basics in working in group in the mountain. The day after we went on top of  "Pic du Glacier d'Arsine (3364m)" and went back down.

On Thursday we went a via ferrata just outside of Vallouise en went to visit the beautiful city of Briançon.

On the last days we went up to the refuge of the "Bans" to be able to leave early on the next morning to climb our last summit the "Point of Red Beefs (3516m)".

France : Hiking on the Island of beauty

I already had the opportunity to visit Corsica when I was younger but I didn't remember too much of it. So what was our plan this time?

If you ask most of the people, Corsica is the place of the mythic GR20. We only had 4 days and didn't want to  do like everybody so we decided to walk on the Mare a Mare Center in 4 days. We started at Ghisonaccia direction our first stop, Catastaghju. It isn't a surprise for anybody if you start at sea level on a mountainous island you only can go up. However, it is worth the difficulty. When you arrive at the refuge you only hear birds singing and the water hitting rocks of a cascade. It isn't a big place but all basic things are available. We installed our tent and got to rest for the next day (3€/tent, 3€ shower, 20€ for a room).

We followed the orange marks

Yes, we're going up there!

Our second day started with a big climb, a bit more than 1000m elevation gain in 5km. However, the good news was that the rest of the day was going down hill. 

We stayed at the hotel restaurant "Le Florida" in Zicavo (http://www.hotel-le-florida.com/index.php). It was a nice place to stay and people were friendly. They let us put our tent on the soccer field in front of their restaurant for free.

The advantage of Mare a Mare is that you can see all kind of different landscapes of Corsica: you go from mountains to meadows. We arrived at Quasquaea for our third stop. We stayed the the "Gîte l'’AGHIJA" (http://laghjaquasquara.wix.com/gitequasquara#!). It was a really friendly place to stay and the view from the balcony was wonderful. (10€/tent, 20€/room)

Our last stop took us to Col Saint-Georges where we stopped at the Bar-restaurant of the same name. It was 5€ to pitch our tent next to the refuge in front of the restaurant. It was a nice place to stay but it is a little noisy as the road is nearby.

After walking five days in the beautiful landscapes of Corsica, we finally saw the other side of the island, Ajaccio. Mare a mare center is a 7 days hike so we slightly changed the itinerary in order to fit it in our 5 days.

We arrived at 2 o'clock in the afternoon at camping EUROPE in AGNARELLU where we would stay the next 3 days. The first thing we did was drop everything, put our swimming suit and ran to the beach about 500m from the camping. The water was like they said emerald blue! Even though the water wasn't warm it felt so good to relax a bit after our five daysof walking.

The next days we went climbing in the area and had some diving initiation. This was a really great trip of outdoor adventure in wonderful landscapes and nature.