September 30th - Excuse me, I’m rambling

01/10/2007 by Brigid.

When we got home there was a distinct chill in the air, and the first snow had fallen above 1300m. After a week in London, we needed some fresh air, so we picked another ‘easy’ walk from Roger Büdeler’s excellent little book and took off into the mountains. The ascent to the Cirque de la Glère is described as rough in parts, but followed by a “promenade sans fatique” over the Chemin de l’Impératrice (’the path of the Empress’). “… sans fatique”, even to non-French readers, needs little translation, and we were reassured by the idea that the Empress would probably not have wanted to weary herself. M. Büdeler says that the entire 12km circuit, including a climb of 539m, should take 3 3/4 hours. M. Büdeler has a sense of humour.

An unmade road zig-zagged up through the forest until the Gouffre de Malaplatte, half way from the top, then shrank suddenly away to a narrow crumbling path. It took us over 2 hours to reach the grassy pasture at the foot of the Cirque where we suffered a momentary panic when we lost sight of the trail. It was already 4pm and we were a long way from where we parked the car. So far the route had been fairly well marked out with infrequent yellow arrows and painted dots but, without the aid of a map and compass, I doubt whether we would have found the Chemin de l’Impératrice.

“Sans fatigue” the return leg may have been, but it was certainly not without risk. At its outset, the path was well made with a level surface of compacted shingle. We passed a couple of families carrying small children in backpacks. They were dressed casually and did not appear to have brought any specialist walking equipment. To all intents and purposes, they were just out for a Sunday stroll. It was only further on, as we picked our way gingerly over precipitous ledges, loose rocks and small waterfalls, that we remembered the essential difference between these families and us. They are French!

The 1780m ski resort of Super Bagnères is just visible above and to the right of John’s head in this photo. Super Bagnères enjoys the unusual distinction that one takes the ski lift up to the hotel and skis down again.

The whole walk took us 6 hours, but we were rewarded with some spectacular views. They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words, so I’ll keep this post short and share some of the scenery with you. Click the photo to enlarge the image.

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