Fleeting Wor(l)ds

I left my adopted Cathars for three days and three nights in order to breath some fresh air and visit my favorite Savoy Healer! The Triplets of Belleville missed a third wheel to their tandem but what a beautiful mountain!
I got a shot of French Alps in about 2 shakes of a lamb’s tail, I bulked up my caves climbing up, worked out my legs’ dampers hiking down and greased my elbow on the edge of a few beers… In a word, a cheerful and successful escape I will share with you if your summer mood happens to send you to high mountains.

A night by Lake Bourget

Considered as the biggest French lake of glacial origin, Le Bourget has inspired a few poets. Lamartine to only name one! And for my second stay at Chambéry, I was lucky enough to gaze as its summer turquoise and mesmerizing swell.
Behind this process, there is a scientific and perfectly natural explanation… With summer hot waves, microscopic plankton grows, as water calcium carbonate precipitates to calcite. The small grains stick to plankton and spread the light when it hits the lake’s waters. Added to the original blue, Le Bourget then turns into an amazing turquoise.
For my first night on Alps lands, I wasn’t high enough to get a glimpse of every shade of blue but we enjoy the Lake cool and fresh air to follow our beer.

O lake! Now hardly by a year grown older,
And nigh the well-known waves her eyes should greet,
Behold! I sit alone on this same boulder
Thou knewest for her seat.

One eve- remembering thou?- in silence drifting,
‘Twixt deep and sky no sound had echo save
Afar the rowers dipping oars and lifting
Over thy waters suave. 

When all at once a voice that made earth wonder
From the charmed shore drove all the echoes wide,
And rapt the wave, not fain as I nor fonder,
And with sweet words did chide: 

‘Stay thou thy flight, O Time! and happy hours
Trail by with laggard feet!
Let all the savour of your delight be ours
Of all our days most sweet!

The Lake (Samples), Lamartine

The “tip” of the lake: There is, of course, a multitude of shores restaurants, like La Frégate or Le Restaurant du Port. You would be tempted by a poor menu so wonderful is the view, but we all know how it works, you pay the scenery and the food has a lot of room for improvement. I would therefore advice to follow our lead: bring your own beer and order a pizza at the pleasant food-truck in the corner, you’ll get it all for cheap and good.

A high hike

For this first day of explorations, my favorite Savoy Healer wanted me to feel the altitude, she wanted to get me high for an “easy peasy hike” where I was supposed to meet a lot of marmots… Do not ever trust Savoy people when they talk about an “easy peasy hike” because you definitely don’t have the same definition! Indeed, last Sunday, I realized if I liked to hike (although going up and down feels kinda hard) and despite all the miles I have walked during my foreign explorations, I really need to practice!

But enough of dialectic!

We left Chambéry by a hot summer morning to Champagny-en-Vanoise, The place to go in French Alps I’ve been told… To give you an idea, it is on the other side of Courchevelle, now heaven of very rich Russians, here to drink very expensive champagne more than skiing, told my favorite Savoy Healer.
And cradled by her anecdotes, landscapes once more traveled me out of France. As I am discovering my own country after so many others, I can’t help my imaginative comes and goes. The road ran ahead of me and I was piercing Canadian Rockies whose eternal snow had melted down for summer time, I sublimed their similar and further desert tops. Champagny crossed my dream though and I was facing the perfect French Alps’ picture: a small steeple in mountains’ heart, followed by climbing village streets. What an emotion!

Then, once again, as we parked, I escaped to other lands, it looked so much alike Iceland and Scotland…! My feet though, were perfectly going through the present of the sleepy marmot’s hike, and my soul came back here and now to experience French Alps and meet lazy groundhogs.

The “tips” of Vanoise National Park:
* Hike the “easy peasy” trail from Refuge de Laisonnay to Refuge de la Glière, and push a bit further after the refuge to actually gaze at the Lac de la Glière (French name given to the soil once a glacier has completely melted), lying down of the Grande Casse.
* Stop by the aforementioned refuge for a tea (and a blueberry tart if you cannot resist at all, but you need to know and I am sorry to tell, despite the homemade title, blueberries are not – like often in the area – freshly picked up, they come from some frozen grocery stores).
* Set your camp in Canada: the site does give a real forest and outdoor feeling, it smells like pine trees and a river ran through it… You also should know the Canadian nickname is not just a joke, the valley’s winter is quite freezing and gets so little sun. Stuck in between two high mountains, you could almost think you are up North in the World.
* Eat a fondue at Champagny-en-Vanoise! I know, it is hard to even picture you would want a fondue when it is 100°F and I am myself melting in front of my computer! But I can assure you, at the end of a nice hike, when the mountain atmosphere is cooling down with night, a fondue is quite the welcome guest! I therefore send you to Toni’s, at the Grand Bouquetin.
* In the other hand, you must absolutely avoid to have a drink at one of the main square’s bars, except if you are happy to pay 10€ for a beer!

A scenic hike

Really, my favorite Savoy Healer spoiled me, she wanted to give me 100% of Savoie, the crème de la crème, a varied sample of her homeland and my second hiking day proved it!

Indeed, my favorite Savoy Healer had cooked for me a dreamy panorama in between lakes and mountains, giving my first glance at the Mont Blanc! We started at Le Revard lookout and followed, mesmerized, The Ridges Trail following some poets’ steps from time to time…

Then, we walked down the green valley where eternal milky cows’ bells were singing. Their aria went from upstream to downstream as gentian was drying in the sun. Thus, it not a myth invented by Milka to sell more chocolate bars, the sound spreads through cabins, vanished neve and cheesy farms, and it is majestically simple.

And the sunset eventually welcame our tired bodies in Lake Bourget’s turquoise swell….

The “tip” of Le Revard: The actual hike lasts 3.30-4 hours and gives, in my opinion, a true taste of French Alps. Yes but, the last part of the walk is not that memorable and, according to my favorite Savoy Healer, some other trails would give you the same condensed trip with more consistent landscapes, therefore our advice would be to shorten your hike and stop at the 3rd step: La Tour des Ébats from where you can go back through the same path in order to gaze at the same scenery, but backwards this time.

A few more ideas

My adventures stopped there for my second stay at Chambéry but I had already visited and thus can give you some other tips!

* Experience the traditional Saturday farmer market of Place de Genève at Chambéry and end up on the edge of a coffee and/or a glass of white wine nearby the famous Fontaine des quatre-sans-cul (The four assless Fountain) whose story is quiet unusual and warped by time! Within living memory, everybody will tell you this four elephants without an arse fountain tells about Hannibal’s legendary crossing of the Alps during Punic Wars… Except when I looked into the web, I was told it was edified to honor Général de Boigne, some obscur (at least for me) settler in India. As you might guess, I highly prefer Hannibal’s version that still causes much ink to flow today! Professionals argue if it was possible to cross with elephants, checking out passes and paths, some trails were created following the assumed route and a race was even launched a couple of years ago from Lyon to Turin, the Raid Hannibal. A true curious mystery….

* Eat a delicious fondue at the Sporting, with a glass of Saint Chignin -Bergeron, one of the tastiest white wines of the area.
* Pick up some rampions (if your are there in May) on Vérel-Pragondran Ridges Trail giving you a first shy glimpse at Lake Bourget. After your promenade, you might even learn some more about the area’s plants from my favorite Savoy Healer if you get lucky enough to meet her, she will cook some rampions in butter for you and will explain the Plantain leaves‘ magical virtues to heal your wasp’s stings.
* Buy a nice piece of summer Beaufort Cheese and some buckwheat crozets in order to cook a tasty Croziflette back home:

100 g de Beaufort
200 g de Crozets
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1 oignon

Cook your crozets in water like pastas. Grilled a bit your oignon in an oiled pan. Blend crozets, shredded or cut cheese, sour cream and grilled onion in a oven dish and put in oven for 30 mins (180°C/350°F).

I am really done this time! I leave you to your own adventures in the French Alps, I thank my favorite Savoy Healer for the incredible stay she planed for me and I have a cheerful thought for the missing sit in our Triplets of Belleville’s tandem!