Eye Candy

Eye Candy 👁️  

One of the best things about our trip was the ‘eye candy’ - no not fit ski instructors or cool boarders but some of the natural viewscapes and buildings we saw in the mountains of France, in Switzerland and Belgium. 

I have so many photos to share and have put them into a couple videos on our YouTube channel https://youtube.com/ 
‘Scenes’ & ‘Architecture’.

But here a few of my absolute favourites 💯 😊

Architecture

I was blown away by some of the mountain chalets we saw, like something from a picture book or Heidi film! I particularly liked the traditional wooden ones but also some of the tasteful modern structures too. 

Pretty chalet, Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval

Munot fortress Shaffhausen, Switzerland

Newer chalets, Samoëns

Outer village, Samoëns


Traditional chalet, Sixt

Annecy

The 13th century buildings in Annecy were great to look at, with their colours and unusual shapes. 
 
Grenier, Sixt-fer-a-Cheval 

Greniers were built to store grain and were separate from the main farmhouse chalet as a fire precaution. Some still hold this function, others have been renovated as small accommodations. They can be seen everywhere in the mountain areas.

Converted grenier, Samoëns

Samoëns farmhouse chalet

Families lived in the lower floor whilst the top floors were for storage. Roofs were at a gentle slope to keep snow on them as insulation in the winter.
Farmers had several chalets at different levels on the mountain for spring, summer and winter grazing.



February in Samoëns town

Sixt-fer-a-Cheval 
Logs stacked under the eaves also provide insulation.

Hotel Le Flaine


Strasbourg Cathedral at night

Strasbourg 

Unfortunately we visited Strasbourg in the rain but it we were able to see the 13th-14h century buildings were still interesting to see with their French and german influences.

Russian church, Geneva

La Marie, Samoëns - an amazing backdrop


Cute shop, Samoëns






Painted buildings in Stein-am-Rhein, Switzerland 


Abbey, Sixt - austere but stunning in it's simplicity

Samoëns

St. Gervais

Chateau de Rapaille

Thonon les Baines


Landscapes
From mountains to cliffs, streams, frozen waterfalls and of course snow - breathtakingly beautiful and good for the soul 💚💙

Freshly pisted snow ❄️ every skiers dream

Awe inspiring, bringing calm to the soul

Lac Leman (Geneva), Thonon-Le-Bains

In the forest, Cirque-du-fer-a-Cheval (or Circus-of-the-horse-shoe)

Samoëns

Lac aux Dames, Samoëns


Jet D’Eau,Geneva

Lake Geneva


January, a walk through the forest in snowshoes, Cirque-du-fer-a-Cheval

Above the clouds, Flaine, 2200m - blissful

Tête des Saix, Samoëns

Samoëns campsite on the 3rd day, first snowfall ❄️ 

Cirque-du-fer-a-Cheval, one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen.


Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Schaffhausen, Switzerland 

Awesome, Mt Blanc Flaine 👑 

Lac Bleu, beautifully clear blue lake, Morrillon 

Unreal views and snowscape 💙 Morrillon

Lunch stop, Les Carroz

March in the warmth and sunshine, Cirque-du-fer-a-Cheval

 I hope you've enjoyed sharing these photos with us, natural and historical beauty are an excellent grounder and remind us to keep our eyes wide open...

This post was written by Melle, contributed to by Chris xxx

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My thoughts on skiing in the Pyrenees

Image
The Pyrenees and all its rugged beauty I've only skied three weeks in the Pyrenees so admittedly these thoughts are from a fairly minimal experience.   I’m not an expert, and have limited experience of 5 resorts in Pyrenees so maybe not everything is true of everywhere.  I haven't gone to the trouble of checking all the technical specifications of mountain peaks and average annual snowfall over the last 100 years either - these are just my thoughts following spending 2 months in Alps last year and a month in Pyrenees this. 😁 It seems to me that nearly everyone, especially from the UK and northern european countries goes to the Alps for their winter holiday so the resorts there have especially large size and infrastructure particularly for alpine skiing.  For example the ski lifts seem to have considered every slope and possibility and access to slopes is frequent and convenient.  The free ski buses in the Alps have routes throughout resorts to make sure it's as...
Read more

Thank You Samoens

Image
So we're coming to the end of the first part of our Alpine adventure as we prepare to pack up and go to meet our friends Helen and Felix for a weekend city break in Geneva over the coming weekend.  It's nearly three weeks since we set off from home in Shrewsbury and when we come back to the Alps we are planning to move to a different village as February is a very busy month with the French (and British) school holidays increasing the population in Samoens ten fold from 2,500 to about 25,000.  So we plan to find somewhere a bit smaller and quieter but more of that later. Coming to the Grand Massif ski area we were aware that there are a number of villages we could stay in but we planned to stay somewhere, in the first place, that gently introduced us to Alpine living.  We settled on Le Giffre Campsite in Samoens because alongside electric hook up and the basic water filling and emptying it offered hot shower blocks, laundry facilities and a store for boots and skis. ...
Read more

They think it’s all over, it nearly is now

Image
So here we  are in Saint-Valerie-en-Caux on the French / Normandy coast with about 24 hours to go of our adventure.     Where did the last ten weeks go?     Honestly - we have tried to bring the weather back from Andalucia  The last week has been a significant driving affair, a real whistle stop tour up through the centre of Spain and then the west coast of France.    Over two thousand miles I think and a variety of different overnight stops - some better than others!   We stopped for a day visit in San Sebastián and the weather was really lovely with full sun and blue sky to make this little resort seem like a great place to return some day.    The sea was really inviting and we stood transfixed for half an hour watching foot volleyball being played 2 v 2 on the beach.    Over lunch we tried the local ‘pintxo’ variation on tapas - they were lovely and it was very easy to join in.    Once in France we also p...
Read more