France: Le Bettex to Les Communailles

Mont Blanc

It's the last morning of our short stay with  John and Anne at La Cry and as it is a beautiful day we re out fro a short walk. We make the short drive up to the ski station at Le Bettex and head off in the direction of the hamlet of Les Communailles. It is a mainly level path with the valley carrying the road from Chamonix below on the left.

Quite quickly I spot this little butterfly, which I at first take for some sort of Blue. More careful study when I returned home revealed it to be a Sooty Copper, a first for me.

Some after, another first. A Pale Clouded Yellow flies by - and then, miraculously, lands to allow a photograph.

Butterfly numbers seemed to be down this year and even this flowery hillside, which has produced many interesting sightings in the past, had little to offer.

Further along, we starting to see orchids and this Common Spotted orchid stood out in a field of green.

Now a clear view to the left opened out and offered some typical alpine scenery with villages of LEes Communailles below.

On the right was a grassy slope with a densely packed concentration of Trolius.

Then the path entered some woodland and meandered round the contours for a while. It's not all that obvious from the photo, but this damp slope was covered in small pink flowers. It was a pretty sight and I suppose I should have zoomed in to make it more visible.

Emerging from the woods we passed the site of some building works and ended the walk with another nice alpine view.

It remained only to turn round and walk back.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: four stars. A delightful stroll.

France: La Cry to St Gervais-les-Bains

View from La Cry over the valley in which St Gervais-le-Bains sits

We are staying with our friends Jon and Anne at their ski chalet near St Gervais-les-Bains. The town down in the valley at about 500 metres and the ski chalet, like most others, is on one of the slopes which surround it at about 1600 metres. La Cry is perhaps best described as a section of the hillside. On other visits we have done numerous wonderful walks on high ground, but today we are going to explore walking down to the town.

We start by heading uphill and then turn left along a track which begins to descend quite sharply. Soon we reach a short level stretch and pass under a ski lift and and have a wider view of the valley.

Descending again we pass a beautiful horse looking curiously at us from its position at teh enrance to a field.

A steep descent brings us to a house with some flowers on the slope opposite. I am delighted to see my first butterflies of the visit. A beautiful Black-veined White ...

... and a Painted Lady, which I could only photograph from head on.

We pass an area where there are flowers on both sides of the road, with several small Blues and some other new-seeming butterflies, which I later realise are moths. (I can't seem to raise much enthusiasm for moths.)

The descent continues to be steep and we follow an assortment of tracks, sometimes between houses and farms. It is fascinating to see how many scattered dwellings there are on the hillside, and how many still function as farms.

We emerge onto a road and turn right toward the town centre, crossing over a bridge with a seasonal stream below. It looks quite dramatic today.

From the opposite side of the bridge there is a nice view towards the church, with a mountain behind.

As we approach the centre we are struck by this wonderful picture on the side wall of a house. It may not be a Banksy, but it is very impressive. It was the work of two other street artists: Zoer and Irsut. You can see more of Zoer's work here - it is rather good. The picture marks the 95th anniversary of the first landing on the Col du Dôme in 1921. It seems they couldn't wait for the 100th anniversary!

We continued along to the charming church ...

... and round the corner to an excellent restaurant for a light lunch. Just beyond it was a rather abstract statue which we were told represents Mont Blanc. I can sort of see how it might.

Conditions: nice and warm, if rather cloudy.

Rating: four stars. We have been driven up from St Gervais to La Cry and back again many times, but it was very interesting to walk through the scattered community which covers the hillside. And interesting to have a closer look at the town.

Plateau de la Croix to Porcherey

View from Plateau de la Croix

We are the French Alps visiting our friends John and Anne, and John has come up trumps with this simple but wonderful walk. We park at Plateau de la Croix and head uphill towards Mont Joly. It is immediately clear that the wild flowers are in full bloom, but will there be butterflies?

Of course there will! Within minutes I spot a flash of orange which turns out to be a Purple-edged Copper (Lycaenae hippothoe).

A bit further up the hill is a small flower meadow with what seems to be a carefully chosen palette of white, lilac, pink and yellow.

I soon spot a beautiful fritillary which the very useful Butterflies of France website enables me to identify as Weaver's Fritillary.

As ever with Fritillaries, identification depends on the underside and the website has a wonderful gallery of all of those found in in France.

We head on uphill and soon have a fine view towards the valley which leads to the Swiss border and Geneva.

Further on there is a nice alpine view with a small farm and the rocky ridge which is directly opposite Jon's chalet.

Carrying on uphill towards Mont Joly, there is a more conventional alpine view on the left.

Now, somewhat surprisingly I spot a Wood White.

And further along the track there is an Almond-eyed Ringlet (Erebia alberganus)

Finally, there is a sighting of one of my favourite butterflies: the striking Black-veined White. Once (well, before about 1925) it could be seen in England.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: two or three miles.

Rating: five stars. Lovely views, good company and some new butterfly sightings. What could be better?

Passy Plaine-Joux

Passy Plaine-Joux

Still in the Alps and today's weather shows a massive improvement. We cross the valley from St Gervais and climb up to Passy Plaine-Joux at 1600m. Looking back across the valley we can see the pointed summit of Mont Joly at 2525m.

This is a well-known paragliding launch point and here is the spectacular view down into the valley from the edge of the launch zone.

With out backs to the valley we walk back past the car park and uphill towards the rocky massif behind.

Almost immediately I spot an unfamiliar Blue butterfly. I wasn't quick enough to get a picture and off it flew. A hopeful sign though.

Soon afterwards, the first new wildflower of the day presented itself: it seems to be some sort of vetch, but I haven't been able to identify it. A beautiful colour though.

Then we started to see a lot of this yellow flower, Field Mustard (Sinapsis arvensis).

As we continued uphill I thought I had found several examples of another butterfly, perhaps some sort of Checkered Skipper. My butterfly book established that it wasn't - it seems instead to be a moth, the Latticed Heath, or some continental variant of it.

Also flying in the same locality was another creature which was more obviously a moth, a Burnet Companion.

And another orchid to join those we saw yesterday at Le Bettex. I think this is a Military Orchid.

We were gradually getting nearer to the massif, which dramatically loomed over us.

A bit further on we heard the sound of a rock fall and could see some small debris coming over the edge of the massif. We were glad we were well out of the way.

The flowers were starting to become thinner on the ground, but this attractrive red flower stood out. Sadly, I have not been able to identify it.

There was a lovely view back over the winding track with a couple of other walkers kindly providing a sense of scale.

Finally, with the cloud growing and the temperature falling I spotted this pretty Matted Globularia (Globularia cordifolia).

It remained only to retrace our steps. Here is a final view of Mont Joly.

Conditions: clear and bright at first, becoming cloudier.

Distance:a couple of miles, but 1500m of ascent.

Rating: four stars.

Le Bettex

View along the path

We are in the Alps, staying with our friends John and Anne. The weather has been poor: rain and low cloud. However, it has finally stopped raining and we decide on a short level walk from the Le Bettex ski lift. Last year we went up by the ski lift to walk to Mont Arbois in bright sunshine. Oh well, we are where we are. It is still pretty cloudy.

At least there are plenty of wildflowers to take my mind off the lack of butterflies. The first one to catch my eye was this beautiful Viola tricolor.

Nearby was this lovely Bellflower. I am not entirely sure which one it is.

There were still clouds ahead, but both sides of the path had a good crop of wildflowers.

Now we started to see some orchids. I think this may be a Heath Spotted.

A bit further on there was a decent alpine flower meadow on the left.

After this the path narrowed, but the left hand hedgerow offered up this wonderful Water Avens

And in the field to the right there were numerous specimens of the striking Trollius europaeus, Trollins.

The next open area had a great number of orchids. This, I think, is a Broad-leaved Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza majalis).

Further on, at a bend in the track, was something new: a Mealy Primrose.

We had now reached the point where it was time to retrace our steps. I rather liked this view through the trees.

Conditions: cool, cloudy.

Distance: a couple of miles.

Rating: four stars. Lots of lovely flowers. But if only the sun had been shining and there were butterflies too!