Creux de l'Envers

We have been very unlucky when it comes to our weather choices in here. One thing I learnt: never trust the forecasts around. But it is frustrating really - not to be able to say if the day will be good enough to get out or not. Saturday was supposed to be all gloomy and rainy so we stayed home. To our annoyence, it was a beautiful day. So on Sunday, as soon as it stopped raining, having looked at the forecasts which said: "don't you worry, it won't rain any more" we decided to have a walk at the footstep of Jura. When we set off it was sunny but the clouds were kind of forming as you can see in these photos.

At some point it became a bit more dramatic so we started rushing back to our car hoping that the rain wouldn't catch us (I mean, we can stand a storm, but we were afraid about our baby boy health). And then, suddenly, the storm began! I mean it all happened in a split second, it became really cold and really windy, heavy rain dropped and turned into hail almost immediately. Oh boy, oh boy, where can we hide? We even didn't have time to react because almost immediately a car pulled over and a nice lady offered us a lift to our car. Thank you, nice lady, you saved us! Our son even didn't get wet.

That last photo was taken seconds before the storm. Well, you never know about the weather in mountains!

Les Gorges du Fier

Can you spot an outline of faces in the photo above? Such marvels of nature can be found in Gorges du Fier - a beautiful site by the river Fier which has carved those narrow passes in the solid rock.
The footbridge is installed at a stupendous height of 25 m.

The trail started with a view over the Fier river, then through a rock portal into a narrow canyon where light reflexes extracted all different colours of the rock and water. After a while we reached "La Mer de Rochers" - the sea of boulders. We watched in terror a guy jumping to the gorge from the rocks. No, he's not a suicider (although it surely looked like he was!). At the end of the trail there was a wild beach with plenty of people bathing in sun and water. Man, why didn't we take our bathing suits? That's a reason to come back again some day!

Mont Joly (2525 m)

Last Saturday I took Ania's sister and cousin to Chamonix to see Aiguille Du Midi and Mer De Galce. I left them in front of the lift and went on my own to Mont Joly (2525 m). I chose this mountain because it was close to Chamonix, accessible in the current conditions and higher than the highest mountain in Poland - Rysy (2499 m). During my hike I found out that this mountain is also very popular because of a wonderful panorama to Mont Blanc massif. 

Family visit: Broc, Gruyères, Montreux

We are having guests this week - my sister and cousin have come to us from Szczecin. They will be here only for a couple of action-packed days. The very first one -a must on a map of the nearby attractions - Broc, Gruyères, Montreux tour. Radek did the exact same tour with our friends (see this post), now it's my turn with family.
We started with a Cailler chocolate factory in Broc followed by Gruyeres cheese house and the village of the same name. Our last destination was Montreux- always beautiful, but truly spectacular by the sunset.

Discovering France and Switzerland in spring

My love turned into spring windstorm -
Into spring windstorm - my madness into storm -
Into storm - my ecstasy into dreamy thrill -
Into dreamy thrill - spring of May into roses. -
From windstorm my new love flows -
New love - from storm frenzy will explode -
Frenzy will explode - dream will bring up ecstasy,
Spring will rise from a rosy bath.

/Untitled, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska/
translated by Julia Waszczuk

Spring is here! After a not so fierce winter we got to experience flowers and bird songs pretty early this year. I am happy at this time of year because it means that we are able to make more walks and trips, thus getting to know different places. So here are some of the photos we took this spring.

Saint Genis Pouilly

Pregnin:

Yvoire:

Chalex:

Ajon:

Saleve:

View on Geneva:

Lovettaz:

Lausanne:

Biking to Le Reculet

Every time when I'm tiered walking down from a mountain peak, I think that this would be much easier on a bike. So this Sunday I went on my bike to Le Reculet to check this.

I rode by Le Tiocan, Col De Crozet, then through Jura and to Le Reculet.

Before I reached the summit I already knew that even if going down is easier on a bike, going up isn't.

Ps -sorry that the photo quality is low (they are taken with a mobile phone)