The French & Swiss Alps
July 1999
July was our big month of vacations
in 1999. Our first vacation was one week spent in Italy
with friends.
After a week of rest for most of the family, our second vacation
was one week spent in the French and Swiss Alps.
The Alps are located on the south-eastern
edge of France and help to seperate France, Italy, and Switzerland.
This is the land of "The Sound
of Music" and "Heidi". As such, our goal was to
spend as much time outside and in the mountains as possible.
For a start, we rented a furnished studio
apartment in the ski resort town of Avoriaz. From there, we took
day trips into the local mountains, to Chamonix/Mont Blanc in
France, and to Gimmelwald and Geneva in Switzerland.
Avoriaz
Avoriaz is a ski resort situated on
the top of mountain peak in the center of the French Alps. This
is a town built solely for the entertainment of visitors in both
the summer and winter. Being on the top of a mountain, one would
think the town would be very visible. However, the architects
have taken great pains to design buildings that blend into the
neighboring slopes. Up close, the result is a rather strange appearance
suggesting the construction crews had a bit "too much"
before starting the project. The buildings are a mixture of angles
and shapes finished in natural colors such as stone and weathered
wood. We found ourselves wondering how they would get snow off
of all the roofs as many had angles and pockets that would appear
to be designed to catch both rain and snow. From a distance, however,
the results are remarkable. You really can't tell that there is
a resort up on the hill--which has to make the local residents
in the valley happy.
Being a town designed for entertainment
and recreation, there were many activities that we could do locally,
such as hiking, mountain biking, mountain climbing, para-sailing,
and many others. The children particularly enjoyed the trampolines
and the merry-go-round.
As a family, we also enjoyed
hiking and exploring the local trails.
Hiking
It had been a year since our last big
hikes in Kentucky
and so our
first hike was a short one to get us used to the altitude and
the concept of walking on something other than pavement. It was
also to get us used to tools of hiking: backpacks, hiking sticks,
water bottles, and such. But perhaps most importantly, it was
a chance to stretch and get out into nature.
Our second day of hiking was in much
the same area. This time, however, we walked all the way down
into the valley, taking most of the day. In addition to being
a longer hike, we also had our first encounter with the storybooks
as we came across a herd of grazing cattle. The sound of their
bells became the sound of the trip as we encountered similar cows
and bells elsewhere.
We also developed a new respect for
the folks who go sking. At several points along the trip we were
walking down the ski runs. It was so difficult and steep in the
summer that we couldn't imagine doing it in the winter with skis
on our feet!
The bright part of walking down the
ski run was that the ski lift (cable car) is located at the bottom.
Thankfully it also runs in the summer and so we got back to the
top the easy way. This was good as we were all exhausted.
