Switzerland: Some Local Views

 

This is where the Chef goes to ski; I go to sit in the sun with my glass of wine, or lie on the sofa in front of a log fire watching a DVD or sewing; and some evenings we go out and eat too much very good food.



This view was taken by the Chef while skiing.
But you can see this pretty ridge from the cable car up to the Pas de Maimbre.

Sunset from the bedroom window.



The new Fondation Pierre Arnaud at Lens (near Crans Montana).

It has the most amazing windows that are, I think, solar panels.

You can see Lens from the flat but not this building.

This amazing rock formation is at Euseigne in the Val d'Herens. We drove past there in the summer and spotted a great herd of goats pastured on this cliff. It was hot and the goats were very smelly.

When the light is right you can see these rocks from the flat.

This is the green roof of Anzere Spa & Wellness.

It's a fabulous way to cover the dull flat roof to the swimming pool.



My favourite sign post: going to Sion? Which way do you fancy today?

And this the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Valere on a hill above the centre of Sion.
Sion is the capital of the Valais.

One of the lovely old larches at Les Rousses. The sun always shines in the Valais.

Another view from the bedroom window and another feature you can see when the light is right. 

This is the Grande Dixence dam far away in the Val d'Herens on the other side of the valley.
This is the tallest gravity dam in the world (whatever that means!).



And another view from the bedroom window. This one is for Betsy.

I love this view of the moon with those strange clouds.

This is a January sunrise. The sky is always changing. It never seems to be the same for 10 minutes at a time. You can see why we love going there; we don't ever have to go far with so much to see right on our doorstep.

Switzerland: Le Chant de Bisse

When we were in Switzerland in August we went for a gentle walk along the village bisse.

A bisse is a traditional method of bringing water to fields which are often some considerable distance from the water source. Essentially it's an irrigation canal. It's really amazing technology when you consider some of these water channels are hundreds of years old and carry water on a very gentle incline for miles. The Bisse d'Ayent was built (I read) in 1442 and runs from the Lac de Tzeuzier to the Mayens d'Arbaz via Anzere.

© www.anzere.ch

Of course, as it is Switzerland, some parts of the bisses are fixed to very terrifying cliffs or run through tunnels where you have to crawl. I'm definitely not going to attempt to visit them.

The section that runs through Anzere is more like a nice clean ditch filled with running water alongside a gentle woodland path edged with wild flowers. It's really very pretty.

© Andrew Clark and found on YouTube

This is a photo of the Bisse du Ro between the Lac de Tseuzier and Crans Montana. It looks extremely terrifying and you wouldn't me get to walk along it in a million years. There's a fascinating video which I do recommend but it is very terrifying and just thinking about the overhanging cliff, the huge drop and the narrow vertiginous path make me feel quite sick. I used to be a bit better at heights but in the last 18 months or so I've developed quite severe vertigo. Which is a bit unfortunate given how many heights, and edges, they have in Switzerland.

Obviously I can't take my own photographs of such frightening looking places but luckily for me our local stretch of bisse is a Sunday afternoon stroll in comparison. In fact people I class as elderly attack this stroll with rather more vim than I do but I suspect they are used to struggling up steep mountains to get to the gentle strolly bit of their walk. My excuse is that I come from London and I'm used to flat pavements. Oh yes, and I live at sea level (OK 60 feet above sea level but that hardly counts when you're up a mountain). Anyway, none of the people we meet along the way seem to spend time photographing the flowers and that makes our walk rather slow.

At times the water runs along a metal trough which would once have been wooden, but mostly it's this beautiful ditch all overgrown with wild flowers and while the path along the bisse has quite steep sides, it's not very scarey at all. When there's a rock in the right place, or the bisse turns a corner, the water makes the most lovely sound. This stretch runs through a wood; mostly pine but also whitebeam, rowan, alder and hazel, so it's a wonderfully shady walk on a hot day.

The village is developing up the mountainside so there are houses on the lower side of the path, the back of the building up against the mountain, and more houses up the mountain too. Rather a lovely place to live but a bit of a hike to get to the bakery for fresh croissants in the morning.

One of these houses is called Le Chant de Bisse. Which I suppose translates as the song of the water. It's a shame that the water that runs past the house  is particularly quiet.

We met a family sailing a boat along the bisse. There was a bit of a crisis when they came to a tunnel (a very small path over the water giving access to the handy bench where were having a sit down) and Mummy, or possibly Granny, had to rescue the boat before it got sucked under. We also met the warden of the bisse, Lucien, who checks for blockages and rubbish, and had to stop talking to us to rescue a dog which had jumped into the water to get cool and couldn't get out again.

It was a beautiful blue sky sunshiney day and the crickets singing in the long grass and not a breath of wind. About an hour after we got home the sky turned black and rain thundered down as though it was the end of the world.