A Rare Sight in Timperley

We woke today to a rainy morning, but long after Sue had departed for work, the darkness subsided and so apparently did the temperature.

The rain turned to snow, giving me this rare view from the study window.

I couldn’t go out as I was waiting for a Special Delivery, but once that had arrived, and the snow had stopped, I ventured out – making the mistake of wearing trainers, which soon became waterlogged in the slush.

After slithering up to the canal towpath, I wondered whether it may have been better to travel by bike today, as the snow was melting fast.

However, the sky was clearing and the temperature was dropping. The slush was very cold as I trotted past Walton Park.

Here’s the view from Marsland Bridge. When I get time I’ll have to play with this image and make it black and white and green.

Whilst I was out, many trams passed me on their way to and fro from Altrincham. Quite a surprise as the slightest bit of bad weather often halts them (or am I being cynical?).

It would have been good to experience some nice crisp creaky snow, rather than the slush which is currently in the process of freezing. Perhaps we’ll have to go elsewhere to find that…

Monday 26 January 2015 – A Rivington Ramble

It had been a while since I’d seen Alan R, so it was good to meet up at short notice in Rivington. Viv and Neil had spotted the ‘short notice’ event and it was good to have their company as well. Alan has had a bad knee for some time, so this amble was intended as part of his recuperation. I think it worked.

Viv and I had a very easy drive from Timperley, leaving us with a leisurely forty minutes to enjoy coffees at the Lower Barn. Travelling similar distances from north Manchester, and setting off from home at the same time as we did, Neil and Alan had less success with the heavy traffic. Anyway, there was no hurry, and by 10.45 we were heading off to the Upper Barn and along the rising track to the ‘Pigeon Tower’.

Built in 1910, and with Lady Leverhulme's sewing room on the top floor, it was renovated in 1974 and re-roofed in 2005. (That’s at least the third time I’ve written those words on these pages – one day perhaps I’ll be able to actually remember these facts!)

On the pleasant but overcast January morning we continued on to Rivington Pike Tower, situated on a knoll at 363 metres, a hunting lodge built in 1733. Unfortunately, access to the interior of the lodge and its spacious cellar is not available to plebs. The steps are well constructed and convenient, though Alan’s knee preferred the grass.

The high point around here, familiar to all who use the M61 motorway, is Winter Hill and the array of masts that adorn its summit. It wasn’t on today’s itinerary, but as you can see below, there’s a well worn and rather boggy route from the Tower to the 456 metre Hill. The first mast was put up in the 1950s, and they have been replaced and added to since then. The hill is also the site of Bronze Age burials (1600 to 1400BC), the graves of two sons of King Edgar (1097 – 1107) [it was formerly known as Edgar Hill], an 1838 murder, and several air crashes and UFO sightings. More here.

A cool wind at the Tower didn’t stop us noshing some cake, before ambling back down to the woodland of Lever Park, a designed landscape between the open moorland and the chain reservoirs which incorporates the village and buildings of Rivington into the overall design and is "one of the largest and most impressive examples of landscape design in Edwardian England". It is of national importance and historical significance but has been neglected and has deteriorated. Situated on the east bank of the Lower Rivington reservoir, the park is named after William Lever, Lord Leverhulme, who bought the estate in 1900 and donated 364 acres  of land to the people of his native Bolton as a public park. Lever was allowed to continue with plans to lay out Lever Park at his own expense, and he maintained it during his lifetime. The park opened in 1904 and contained a boating lake, a zoo, tree-lined avenues and a network of footpaths. Rivington Castle, a folly, was built as a scale replica of Liverpool Castle at Coblowe Hillock near the Lower Rivington Reservoir. There’s not so much as a bench on which to enjoy your cuppa.

The castle overlooks the Lower Rivington Reservoir. Wikipedia reports that Rivington was dramatically changed by the construction of the Anglezarke, Upper Rivington, Lower Rivington and Yarrow reservoirs which were built to provide Liverpool with a safe, clean water supply. Nine properties in the valley were demolished before construction work began. The Rivington Pike Scheme, still in use today, was undertaken between 1850 and 1857. The scheme was to construct five reservoirs and a water treatment works at the south end of Lower Rivington with a 17-mile (27 km) pipeline to storage reservoirs at Prescot. Water from two higher level reservoirs, Rake Brook and Lower Ruddlesworth, was carried south in The Goit, a man-made channel connecting them to the lower reservoirs. The scheme was expanded in 1856, to include High Bullough Reservoir, built in 1850 to supply water to Chorley. The scheme was further expanded by the construction of the Upper Roddlesworth Reservoir in 1867–75 . Work on Yarrow Reservoir began in 1867.

In 1900 Liverpool Corporation attempted to acquire the entire area to safeguard its water supply, and proposed to demolish the entire village. Some buildings were protected and others left vulnerable in an Act of Parliament known as the Liverpool Corporation Act 1902. This allowed the corporation to acquire by compulsory purchase properties in the west of the village, including the Black-a-Moors Head public house and the New Hall, which were demolished between 1902 and 1905. The result was the small settlement that has remained largely unchanged since then.

Here’s a view from the Castle.

Returning to the Lower Barn via the woodland path beside the reservoir, a couple of young wood mice were seen scurrying around. This one was clearly lost and disorientated. Alan kindly returned him to the home that had been revealed by his brother.

A pleasant woodland path led back to the Barn, after this pleasant and sociable outing, with shafts of sunlight greeting us at the finish.

There was plenty of time to return home for lunch, though for the forthcoming programme of three further walks, lunch will probably be taken at the end of the walks. (See below.)

There’s lots more about the history of Rivington here, and the route of our 8 km (5 mile) stroll with over 200 metres ascent, taking around 2 hours, is shown below. Alan’s excellent report, with more history from Wikipedia, is here.

Further morning walks on which all are welcome:

Thursday 19 February - The Adlington Circular Walk. Meet in the White Bear Marina cafe (SD 599 130) at 10.30 am for this 10 km (6 mile) dawdle around Adlington.

Thursday 12 March - An Irksome route to This & That. Meet at 10.30 am at Heaton Park Metro Station (SD 823 038) for a 13 km (8 miles - 3 hours) wander beside the River Irk to a curry house in Shudehill.

Thursday 23 April - Suitable for Tortoises. Meet at Bury Metro Station (SD 804 105) at 10.30 am for a muddled (perhaps muddied) route via Greenmount to the Hare and Hounds in Holcombe Brook. Approx 10 km (6 miles).

Full programme here.

Summer Holiday - 2014

I’ve recently spent a happy few hours indexing our summer holiday 2014 photos and uploading slideshows to Picasa. The set is now complete, so those wishing to dip in to our/their memories can now do so with ease from the existing index page here.

Enjoy!

24 January 2015 – Wythenshawe Parkrun Number 171

Sue and I turned out for today’s Parkrun in fairly benign conditions, though in order to avoid further destruction of the northern touchlines, Andy and Co had devised a route to the south of the football pitches. I hope we didn’t do too much damage.

We started in a different place to usual, resulting in a little congestion in ‘Holloway’s Bog’, but nobody got too badly trampled.

As Sue had pulled a muscle in between getting out of bed and being handed her early morning cuppa, she helped to marshall at a distant part of the course, and took the opportunity to snap a few of us – 18 pictures that can be viewed here.

There were just two of us in my age group. I passed Michael on the first lap, accusing him of being an old timer (he’s a couple of weeks older than me), which he told me afterwards had given him the impetus to make an adrenaline fuelled spurt on the second lap which left me for dead. Well done, Michael.

The route, which is probably about 5.1 km (Parkrun ‘wet weather’ routes are always a little longer than the normal routes) was two laps of the course shown below. Everyone seemed quite happy with it, so well done ‘management’ on coming up with this after having to cancel the run last week for fear of damaging the pitches.

Today’s 183 ‘runners’ included 77 females, a good proportion, and everyone finished within an hour, in some cases only just within an hour, which makes me think that they either had a major incident, or did they perhaps walk? “Parkwalk?”

Anyway that made for a very sociable interlude in the cafe whilst the marshalls swept up the last of the runners and collected all the signage. In fact we’ve come to spend more time in the cafe than we do on the run – that’s to some extent the nature of Parkrun.

The results are here.

PS Sunday morning had me puzzling over a photo published on Wythenshawe Parkrun’s Facebook page, taken by volunteer Bea Holloway, one of the younger members of the Holloway dynasty. I couldn’t resist including it below – Wythenshawe Park at its best on a Saturday morning. Well done Bea, I hope you don’t mind me using your little piece of magic.

Wednesday 21 January 2015 – East Lancs LDWA Plodders Visit Manchester

Don’s flier for this walk also included a route description:

A City United by Canals

We will catch the Metrolink Tram to Stretford, where we will join the Bridgewater Canal and walk towards Manchester passing Old Trafford and onwards past Pomona Docks to join the Cheshire Ring through the City Centre and the Gay Village to pick up the Rochdale Canal for a short time and then join the Ashton Canal where we will walk to the Etihad Stadium.

At the Etihad Stadium we shall walk down Joe Mercer Way to Philips Park where we will cross the River Medlock and enter the Jewish Cemetery and then a bit of road walking to re-join the Rochdale Canal at Newton Heath and walk back to the City Centre to catch the Metrolink Tram home from Shudehill.

On a rainy morning the Timperley contingent made the short trip to Stretford, walked there and back to the A56 bridge, then shivered under the bridge next to the ‘Stretford Reach’ sculpture whilst Don and his disciples made their way to these ‘foreign parts’ from their rendezvous point in Radcliffe.

What a rabble! ‘Plodder’ numbers seem to be on the increase, with 16 turning up for this towpath ramble. Much to the annoyance of the cyclists, Canadian Geese and small children in push chairs who got booted into the canal by the unruly hikers. Well, perhaps they would have been if they’d ventured out into the rain to confront this bunch of miscreants.

The newly surfaced towpath now leads past Watersmeet and all the way to the long-standing diversion around some construction work in Old Trafford.

The diversion afforded us the opportunity to admire the two "Skyhook" sculptures that were unveiled in 1995 as part of the regeneration of the Trafford Park Industrial Estate.  "Skyhooks" was commissioned from Brian Fell who actually produced two 17-metres high hooks and chains. The first is pictured below at the entrance to the Park, and the second one, pictured above, is located on the other side of the old Telephone Exchange near Wharf End.

Don’s well researched route passed some convenient picnic benches in Castlefield where the rain eased for a while as we tucked into our jam butties.

Luckily, there were exactly 16 portions of cake, with which to bribe the assembled entourage into a self-timed attendance record.

Soon it was time to leave – heading into the complexity of the canal system at Castlefield. Looking back, that’s the Wharf pub – an excellent place that despite the lack of custom gained from our party graciously allowed the rabble to use their ‘facilities’.

The Beetham Tower loomed in front of us through the gloom of the rainy January day.

Can you spot the bird box? We saw lots today.

Mike needed a hand to cross this lock, but all except one of the party managed to cross without incident.

“We’ve lost one, Don” shouted Ken after a discreet shove had seen off an elite poser.

After rubbing him down (Barbara did that) and sending him home, the rest of us continued to a ‘light blue zone’ that had some members of the party drooling inanely over something like Ardwick Association FC, and others running for cover.

Following the route so adequately provided by Don above, we soon made it to Philips Park, where Don produced his second instalment of jam butties and announced a second lunch break.

It didn’t last very long, as unaware of this ‘Plodder’ tradition, most of us had eaten all we had at the first opportunity in Castlefield.

Not to worry, it was a good spot to pause for a cuppa before heading across the River Medlock and into the Jewish Cemetery.

We soon found ourselves heading back into Manchester along the Rochdale Canal on a route oft described on these pages. In fact, there’s nothing new about any of this walk, apart from some of Don’s clever jinks through Castlefield, hence the introduction of a fictional element. (I can confirm that no children, cyclists or old men were drowned by thugs during this walk.)

Here’s the route which, including our there and back to Stretford stroll at the start, amounted to some 20 km, with minimal ascent, and took a shade over four and a half hours.

Thanks go to Don for organising this and for so charismatically gaining a record turnout in rainy Manchester when anyone with any sense was out playing in the snow that currently graces our surrounding countryside.

Sunday 18 January 2015 - A Short Walk from La Croix Fry

 

Last night's concert at the Salle des Fêtes de Thônes (a nearby village) was excellent. Billed as the 'Concert du Nouvel An' it comprised performances from a number of local orchestras, including at least one of Yolaine's family, a little drummer boy with long hair and a blue shirt. Ginger Baker would have been impressed! Numerous relatives and friends were in attendance (Yolaine has 32 cousins) and we were made to feel part of the family.

Today we rose to a crisp blue sky day that saw La Clusaz and its surroundings full to capacity. With limited time available we drove up to La Croix Fry and enjoyed a walk along the path towards the Beauregard Plateau, admiring the snow laden trees and the views towards Mont Blanc as we went. Sue is pictured on a piste facing the latter, and today's other picture is a parting shot of La Clusaz as we left the village that has been our home for the last week.

Our apologies go to P and Y for not spending as much time as we should have done cleaning the apartment, I'm sure that given the superb weather you can understand why we left that job to Shawn. Thank you for having us and we hope to see you all again soon.

Sent from The Far North (aka Timperley). 

Saturday 17 January 2015 - Snow in La Clusaz

The snow started last night. A late night move from 'Free Parking' to the multi-storey car park saved us from being sealed into our spot by the first snowplough. 

We woke to less greenery than we've been accustomed to - the view from the apartment is pictured top.

Pierre and Yolaine wisely decided to stay in Annecy rather than meet us for a snowshoe walk, so we enjoyed a lazy morning watching the blizzard from the comfort of our living room. About a foot of snow has fallen. 

My photos from last year's TGO Challenge are now finally indexed thanks to this window of free time.

This afternoon we overcame our lassitude and hopped onto the skibus to Les Confins, where most of the Nordic skiing trails are now open and crowded. There has been a massive influx of people overnight.

In a couple of weeks we should be back on our own skis, so today we gave the rented ones a miss and simply strolled back down a 5 km walking piste to La Clusaz. Views were limited due to the continuing light snow; the bottom two pictures offer a flavour of the experience. I doubt that we were on any footpaths - we just followed the yellow marker posts through the fields. 

P and Y are due for afternoon tea (this French couple prefer tea to coffee) shortly and we may be out after that, so in the interests of being sociable this is all from another day of genuine 'holiday' in La Clusaz.

Friday 16 January 2015 - Tête du Danay

Today's hike took us up to 1734 metres, to a summit so spoilt for views that it has three separate orientation plinths. Whilst modest in height by local standards, it's the highest point between a number of valleys that are otherwise surrounded by high mountains, and is therefore home to some wonderful panoramas even on grey days like this one. 

We started from the apartment, passing an obscenely loud great tit outside the front door and heading through the village and past the swimming pool. At the end of the tarmac a red and white tape with a 'snowshoers only - respect their space' sign barred our way. We ignored it and continued past rummaging blackbirds along the woodland path on which Sue is pictured. 

A booming woman's voice from a ski school across the valley accompanied us for a while as we continued along the path signed to Les Confins. 

Eventually we reached an area of sparse snow and awkward bits of ice. Crampons would have been more help than snowshoes, but we didn't regret having neither. 

There was nobody else around. In fact we met one person all day. Gloves were not needed as we continued to climb snowshoe trail number 12.

At the Mouilles de la Perrière Sue spotted a strange object under a tarpaulin (pictured - centre). "I wonder what that is?" she asked. I hadn't a clue but I bet Sheila doesn't ask such questions! 

A few metres after this we turned sharp left with a view to ascending what would be our first hill of the year. The path rose steadily. I'd noticed a point on the map at 1561 metres that I'd planned to pause at - half way up the 400 metre ascent from the Mouilles. This was going to be the first time this week that we'd regret having forgotten to pack our flask.

Imagine our surprise to discover that the building at point 1561 was in fact 'La Ferme du Danay' a restaurant and buvette where we were able to enjoy a coffee and eat our sandwiches in the company of the tenants, Carinne and Mitch. We spent a happy time with them, chatting about (guess what?) a host of outdoor topics.

Then trail 33 led easily on hard packed snow to the 1734 metre summit of Tête du Danay for the wonderful panoramic views mentioned earlier, one of which is shown in the lower picture. (Remember this was a grey day on which rain was forecast to fall all day - the fact that we got any view at all and stayed perfectly dry was something of a surprise.)

Continuing along the ridge, we soon came across the Bellavarde ski piste that we'd enjoyed on Monday from Les Confins. It was open today, and several people were struggling round a steep corner where I'd taken off my skis on Monday.

Snowshoe trail number 32 then took us north for a couple of hours down packed snow towards the Grand-Bornand valley. An easy and enjoyable descent, despite the gloomy weather and a few sheets of ice lower down before the snow completely disappeared. The Nordic ski tracks at Le Grand-Bornand were mostly 'ice rink' quality and were very decisively marked 'closed' in numerous languages, albeit anyone attempting them would have to be crazy.

A short ride on the free skibus got us back to a rainy La Clusaz shortly after 4 pm, after this 14 km outing with around 700 metres ascent, taking about five hours.

Thursday 15 January 2015 - Annecy

Last night the six of us (Sue and I were joined by Chantal, Joël, Yolaine and Pierre) enjoyed an excellent meal at La Caleche, which can be entered from P and Y's apartment without going outside the building. The French chef told us he learnt his art (of French chefery working for two years in Chichester. Chantal told us that in the high season (most of February) the restaurant would be full of English voices, with the locals feeling transported to a foreign land. She also demanded that we provide a name and a recipe for our version of Tartiflette,  and did I hear her observe that it sounded quite good! Next week, Chantal. 

No skiing today. No more 'face plants' on icy pistes. I'm 5 - 0 up in that contest. Unusually for Sue she hasn't come a cropper even once.

Fearing the worst in the Nordic skiing pistes department, we'd returned our skis etc yesterday, with today's visit to Annecy already in mind. 

It's an easy half hour drive to Bonlieu car park in the centre of town, from where we enjoyed a lakeside wander in bright sunshine with the snow clad Tournette massif, which tops out at 2351 metres (Annecy is 450 metres) glittering in the distance beyond the head of the lake.

Our La Clusaz choughs have been replaced down here with coots and black-headed gulls, goosanders and mallards, with cormorants and bigger gulls and divers such as great crested grebes further out on the lake. The squabbling gulls and mallards might have been at Sale waterfront, but for the surprising absence of Canada geese. There were lots of runners out exercising on the walkways by the lake.

Statues and old buildings guided us to the old town to the south of the river. 

Pedestrian streets between tall buildings, with some tourists but not too many, occupied our time until an overwhelming desire for elevenses drew us into the welcoming Bistrot Café Bar Saint Clair. So welcoming in fact that had the proprietor had Ebola she would no doubt have passed it on to all her customers; she really shouldn't have been at work. Rue Saint Clair is near the old prison pictured (top).

Paninis in a small shop were as good as we've had. Even here they were complaining about the lack of snow. They haven't had any yet this calendar year, and feared that tourists would be staying away.

We wandered around some more - a slideshow will reveal more in due course - before adjourning for a scenic drive around Lac d'Annecy on the now very sunny afternoon. 

We paused for a short walk near the impressive but very private chateau at Duingt, from where the lower picture of the Tournette massif was taken. Lounging on a small pier with some other walkers, we all soaked in the bright sunshine.

Neatly pruned plane trees accompanied us on our final stroll near Talloires, before we trundled back up to the delights of La Clusaz for another relaxing, agenda free, evening. 

Wednesday 14 January 2015 - Sticky Snow at Les Confins

Lie in.

Lazy morning with rain outside. 

Two hours skiing at Les Confins on tracks sticky with a thin layer of fresh snow. Only 4 km of pistes open, so we went round three times. Deserted when we arrived; full of children and groups training when we left. Snowing there but raining in La Clusaz. 

Back by 3.30 for welcome tea and biscuits and a most enjoyable lazy afternoon until our hosts arrive for aperitifs. 

Pictures:

Top - La Clusaz last night

Middle - this morning's view from our balcony

Bottom - the small chapel next to the pistes at Les Confins

Tuesday 13 January 2015 - Plateau de Beauregard

Another sunny morning saw us up at La Croix Fry (1477 metres) by 10.30. There were insufficient pistes open to warrant a charge - we should have bought our passes by the day rather than for three days. Never mind. 

The route through trees to the Beauregard Plateau was skiable but icy. It sported good views to l'Aiguille Vert (2322 metres) with Mont Blanc in the distance behind (pictured). Once on the plateau, the green Crulets piste was a delight, including the sound of woodpeckers in the trees. 

The longest of the four open pistes was the Lachat, an 8 km circuit. Icy in places but generally good fun. It usually links with other plateau pistes, but today we had to take our skis off and walk to Les Matins Clairs refuge for our morning coffees. There was just one other skier there, and a few walkers and snowshoers. There were very few skiers on the trails, and just a smattering of downhill aficionados on the easy slopes that criss crossed our 'Nordic' pistes.

There is so little snow that we pondered the benefit of snowshoes just now.

After a 'sunglasses and gloves' incident - I left sunglasses at the refuge, they had put them on one side, together with some gloves that I took to be Sue's despite their smart appearance. On return to Sue she denied owning them then embarked on a long dialogue with some French people heading for the refuge who eventually understood that their task was to reunite the smart gloves with their owner.

We then paused for lunch on the steps of a closed chalet that was well out of the cool westerly breeze - teeth jarring butties on which Sue seemed intent on me repeating last year's broken tooth incident. 

Then we continued along Lachat, diverting to enjoy the other open pistes, Colomban and Nant.

By the time we had skied back along the access piste to La Croix Fry, we'd covered a satisfactory 17 km; the sky was clouding over and Mont Blanc had disappeared. 

There followed a long period of supping tea and biscuits and contented relaxation back at the apartment. 

Monday 12 January 2015 - Les Confins

After yesterday's easy drive to La Clusaz, our 4pm rendezvous with Yolaine soon saw us efficiently installed in her and Pierre's studio apartment in the centre of town. It turns out that they have been living here recently due to building work on their home in Annecy, so the loan of the apartment for a week is all the more appreciated. Thank you Pierre and Yolaine. 

After moving the car to 'Free Parking' (keeping it in the main car park would cost us €75 for the week) we unpacked then strolled up to La Trace for dinner with Chantal and Joël, together with Yolaine and Pierre. Pierre came after attending the silent march in Annecy following the atrocities committed in Paris last week. 

Tartiflette a la Chantal was superb, following luxurious starters (it would be unfair to hungry readers to say more) and succeeded by a chocolaty pudding. There was a bemused look when I told our hosts that my version of Tartiflette includes mushrooms and an alternative to the Reblachon cheese that's hard to find in the UK. "That's NOT Tartiflette" they all assured me. 

Returning to the apartment (thanks for the lift Yolaine) we passed a snow machine busy trying to keep the main downhill skiing route into town open. There has been very little snow here, so skiing options are more limited than usual.

Choughs congregated on the roofs below us as we breakfasted on the traditional tasty croissants this morning - somebody must regularly offer them breakfast. By the time we left, the Monday market was in full swing. 

A ski hire shop next to the chapel in Les Confins sorted us out with skis, boots and poles for €13 a day each, and piste passes cost a further €7 a day. Only about half of the Les Confins pistes were open today but we managed a couple of laps (Sue is pictured on one of these) of a 2.5 km route before coffees, then we enjoyed the 9 km Bellavarde route up to a minor summit at 1420 metres.

Given the warm, calm, blue sky nature of the day, we could hardly complain about the icy piste. My Porsche skis dragged me down three times on the descent after our al fresco lunch in warm sunshine. Sue miraculously managed to stay upright on her Ford Prefect skis.

The bottom two pictures were taken from our lunch spot and of our lunch spot respectively. 

Primroses and (maybe last year's) Carline Thistles are evident and other flowers are in bud. Winter seems to have been by passed by Spring.

After our 14 km ski we changed back into our only shoes for this trip (hiking boots) and strolled around Les Confins, noting several groups of walkers under the strict control of their guides. Is it me, or in these times of affluence are more and more people too lazy to organise even a short stroll for themselves? The majority of people we saw today were with either instructors or guides, which must at least be good for the local economy. 

By the way - thanks for your comments, I'm unlikely to reply by way of comment this week as we have to go to an obscure stairwell to pick up wifi from a nearby café, and the phone signal is variable.  

Right, I'll try to transmit this from the stairwell, on our way to give the 'huit to 8' shop a bit of custom. 

Sunday 11 January 2015 - A Short Walk in the Jura

Saturday morning's five km Parkrun in Wythenshawe Park was about the muddiest on record. With no spikes on our shoes the simple task of running alongside a couple of football pitches seemed more like treading treacle. 

So with the aid of Mike's Taxi and a little nudge from EasyJet and the dreaded Budget/Avis, we soon found ourselves noshing smoked salmon tart and supping excellent wine at Alistair and Laurence's hideout in Cessy, near the large Hadron Collider.

That set us up for today's short stroll in the Jura, virtually from their doorstep. Just 4 km, with Laurence nursing a headache at home (there were quite a few empty bottles lying around this morning) and lively Lyra, the golden retriever, joining us for the walk.

It was muddy after thrashing overnight rain and warm weather that had melted earlier snow. A bit like Wythenshawe Park if 'truth be known. We wound our way through stick rich forestry, emerging eventually onto a rounded summit topped by an ancient obelisk. Sue, Alistair and Lyra are pictured here. 

A nearby viewing platform helpfully pointed to a panoply of locations, including an invisible hill called Mont Blanc. At least it was quite warm, and not raining. 

Then, after more food, Sue and I jumped into Cleo and sped off to La Clusaz, pictured from where we abandoned the car in a lay by.