Our walk on Tuesday to La Ferme Durand didn't quite do it for us - it was a bit too short, not too much in variation of landscape and vegetation, and limited views over Grenoble and the Alps (though the latter was due to cloud coming over). Before we left on our trip we spent many afternoons sifting through the vast number of walks in each location we are stopping at. We'd narrowed them down to perhaps 2-4 in each place, with achieving them actually dependent on what the weather turned out to be on the day, how we felt etc. This was the first one that wasn't excellent, so we've done very well until now.
Hence, we relooked at the other options we had short-listed for Grenoble, and unfortunately found may were too far out of the city. We are doing enough driving as it is, and didn't fancy driving for perhaps an hour to get to the start of a walk, even though that might be only a distance of perhaps 15km, such is the nature of the winding roads on the sides of the mountainsides here. For this walk we chose a track only 20 minutes driving away, set on the mountain on the opposite side of Grenoble to our previous walk. The route information indicated it was just under 10km long and would take 4 hours to circumnavigate the route, which including gaining an ultimate height of 850m.
This time we got a bit more than we bargained for. It was a very solid steady climb up and a very solid steady descent. The view at the top was unfortunately limited because of trees beside the track most of the way, though the track passed through lovely forest. A multitude of paths criss-crossed the forest so we were very thankful for John's GPS-ed route on his phone. However, in the end we discovered we walked 10.6km, including 1373m uphill and 1373m downhill. We'd walked 3000m up and 3000m down again on one of the walks last week in Die, but this one was much harder because it was so steep and the footing a little loose.
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| Beside the first part of the ascent - a rapidly dropping creekbed at the base of the bluff |
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| Very steep |
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| Even steeper |
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| View looking NW of Grenoble. |
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| View of the mountains opposite. |
Needless to say, we were pleased to have done a good hard walk, it was after all what we wanted to do while we were here, but by the time we reached the car at 12:30pm, in 33 degree heat, we were feeling pretty knackered. Our knees and quads were a little shaky after such a rugged descent.
Since we were part of the way out of the city, we considered continuing another 15km to have a look around a Chartreuse distillery (compulsory tasting!), but decided we were too stuffed, and didn't want to have to do any more driving than necessary. So, it was straight back to the city, our carpark and the cafe nearby to enjoy a hard-earned coffee and sit-down.
A quiet afternoon was in order, updating the blog, washing and other bits and pieces. Because the wifi wasn't working when we arrived, and it took 3 days for the host to sort it out, we had quite a bit of backlog on the blog, plus skyping, emails and bits and pieces to sort out.
Two relatively laid-back days followed. The weather was so hot we didn't feel like getting out and mixing with the sun. We did however track down the nearest swimming pool on the Friday, and enjoyed an hour swimming up and down the 50 metre pool. It was an amazing complex, outdoor and surrounded on all sides by lovely old multi-storied residential buildings. It was one of the most amazing settings we have swum in.
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| Piscine Jean Bron, Grenoble |
We did manage an excellent Cambodian meal one evening at the Phnom Penh after a slightly frustrating time walking ages in the heat to a Thai place, only to find it unaccountably closed, not an unusual occurrence. We do appreciate fresh crunchy vegetables, and the Cambodian cold starter salads were superb. Another fun visit was a beer at La Table Ronde, a cafe established in 1739.
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| Our rather nice Airbnb apartment |
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