Cascade du Dard
It’s a dogs life – vets and cani cross
The great mountains called her and off she trotted, very gamefully up 50 degree or so slopes, full of snow. The walk to the Cascade du Dard from the back of our flat suited her nicely and quickly helped to expend her of some energy. (By the way you don’t have to take such a steep path to the gorge, she just loved running up the slopes.). She had great fun in the snowy banks.
With her pulling prowess it gave us a neat business idea: cani rando (doggy hiking). As of yet we’ve not seen it in Chamonix yet, but it seems to be all the rage in Megeve. Basically it seems to be 15euros a half day for other people to take your dog for a walk. Well we have the waist belt for running with her, plus the dog harness, so we’re all set to go 🙂 Might be a bit cheeky to charge the extra 7 euros for a kneel visit though, unless of course we offered them a cup of coffee when they got to the flat.
Anyway, time came so as we had to get her back into England. She needed to be wormed between 5 days and 24hours before returning home, and as Chamonix is less that a days drive away we could sort the vaccinations in resort before leaving. We found 2 vets on the internet: one who was sure of her prices, the other less so. so we went for the fixed price vet Valerie Heirman, located on the main road between Les Tines & Les Praz, easily spotted by her big blue cross.
Everything was then straightforward and she wolfed her tablet down within the food it was hidden. Job done in a visit that lasted only a few minutes.
Valerie Heirman, 1041 Route Des Tines. 04 50 53 98 08 was the vet we used.
Our travel on the Channel Tunnel was straightforward both ways too. Another fee we wondered how hard someone had to work to earn it, we even scanned our own microchip for them.
Anyway, all good, and she thoroughly enjoyed her trip and will be looking forward to her visit in the summer.
A quick shot above of her recovering form her cani cross activities on a rare occasion when she suck on the sofa!!. We thoroughly hoovered and cleaned afterwards I hasten to add.
In search of cafes; short family hikes
Not always do our kids share our enthusiasm for walking, so incentives ‘to get there’ are often required. In most cases this takes the form of food or drink. Given that Chamonix is a glacial valley its sides are steep so a cafe or buvette at a key view point can be a welcome break. Here are some of our favourites. We’ve not been specific on directions as the paths are pretty well sign posted (as you might be able to see on the photo below) with estimates of length in minutes which seem to be family pace.
Cascade du Dard (1,233m).
This is probably one of the easiest short walks that can handily be combined with a walk up to Chalet du Cerro .
Cascade du Dard has views of the 20m high waterfall and Aiguilles Rouges. It takes about 20 mins to get there if you park in the car park at the last bend on the road to Mont Blanc, or 40 mins if you walk directly from Barrats A.
Chalet du Cerro (1,358m)
This is a further 40 mins on from Cascade du Dard. Just behind it is the viewing platform for the Bossons Glacier, the longest in the valley, if not in Europe I think. Alternately you can park next to the Mont Blanc tunnel and ascend for 20 mins or walk from 45mins from Songenaz in Les Bossons.
La Floria (1,137m)
This is worth the effort if only to appreciate the beautiful flowers. These frame the fantastic views of Mont Blanc on the opposite side of the valley. This is also situated on a public foot path, a little above the Petite Balcon Sud so you can picnic providing you purchase a drink.
The walk takes about an hour from Barrats A or about 45 mins from the Brevent, Les Nants (next to the Tennis courts) or Paradiz des Praz car parks.
Chalet du Chapeau (1,576m)
This is placed within the l’Arveyron canyon, offering a view of the Drus and the Chamonix valley. It also has a view point 15mins higher up which gives great views of the foot of the Mer de Glace. The walk takes about 50 mins from La Lavancher or 1hr 15 mins from the village of Les Bois. We cycled from Chamonix via the Bois du Bochet cycle route just to add another dimension to things and locked the bikes up near Les Bois.
Cascade du Berard (1,456m).
This is within the area of Vallorcine at the top of the Chamonix valley. It’s at the beginning of the much longer Col du Buet walk, but a great introduction to this part of the valley.
It’s a gentle 25 mins stroll from the car park in the Buet hamlet.
Short family hikes have the advantage of leaving you half the day free to do things that might be higher on the kids list like, swimming or visiting the lake. Or alternatively taking advantage of a break in the weather when the skies decide to demonstrate why the local flora & fauna is so lush and green.
And if they don’t fancy walking, here are some other ideas when the weather is good.
(and we’ve added a few more dry ideas and another and this one even has an outside museum)
and when the weather isn’t so good….
Exploring Chamonix Mont-Blanc 