La Floria
The Goldhawk project’s answer to happiness = walks in Chamonix
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The Goldhawk project’s answer to happiness = walks in Chamonix
Although this might seem like a bit of a cheat, I’d like to share with you some of the experiences some of our guests had while staying in our apartment during the early summer.
This couple’s goal in life is to find good and beautiful things, share them and spread the happiness. They are real people and they have some great advice and observations on walking in the valley, as not everyone is a super elite athlete. Rather helpfully their post also contains distances and estimated times, ranging between 2 to 7 hours. Pretty picture too 🙂
The walks they covered were:
- – Plan Lachat
- – Petite Balcon Sud
- – Les Praz to Lac Blanc
- – La Flegere to La Floria
- – Chamonix to Glacier des Bossons
A pretty busy week by all accounts!
Thanks Gregor and Ruth!
And here are a couple more ideas for short family walks and and outside museum incorporated into a short walk.
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….
Seb says that skiing conditions could be good until the end of May!
Well, for those of us that sometimes feel the ski season is too short, it seems you are in luck this year. Seb Montaz’s latest Chamonix snow report (22nd April 2010) says that the snow “for this time of year is incredible.” He reckons that we should be able to ski up until the end of May this year, wow!
Seb then goes on to show us what all the fuss is about with some fantastic shots of his friends descending vertical drops on the back of Brevent, having gone up La Floria. There are even some fresh tracks shots. – Snow conditions are still safe on the Valley Blanche and Grand Montets areas.
Seb of course is well placed to offer advice, given that he is a highly experienced summer and winter mountain guide. His snow reports have been fantastic all season, but this is probably one of his last snow videos this year. Shame, but roll on warm weather for the cycling etc.
We even get some insight into his favourite music. The track to accompany his possibly penultimate snow report is Brad Sucks – dropping out of school.
And if you like Seb’s video’s don’t forget to come back again in June to check out our own personal video filmed by the man himself. Don’t worry it’ll be on the boy’s Mont Blanc assent rather than cleaning the flat or something dull like that.
Exploring Chamonix Mont-Blanc 