Trifter

This year I wanted to see some of a real winter. And that means snow, snow and more snow. I found that in a French forest called Fôret de Saou, in the department of La Drome. This forest is inside a hidden valley, inside a very singular perched synclinal, famous among geologists as it is the highest in Europe as well and really beautiful place. After a two hour ride from Montpellier we stopped in the village of Saou in order to buy some bread. Saou itself is tiny village of stone houses with a couple bars, a couple of shops, a library and a city hall with the typical “school for boys” and “school for girls” one each side of the building. Despite its small size Saou also has its own beer brewery. It was Sunday when we were there and that means market day in the main square. The entrance to the valley is done via a narrow road going along amazing cliffs, and once inside what we saw was breathtaking. A white landscape, trees covered with 10 cm of snow on every branch, what everybody dreams of a white Christmas. The only buildings there are a hostel built in the XIX century where that now works only as a museum and that we found closed at this time of the year. Also the forest guards seem to live in a building next to the hostel.

It was all like a postcard. This is the place where we started walking.

A hundred metres further from the place where we left the cars we had to put on rackets as it was more comfortable to walk on the snow. The path was in many places blocked by fallen branches as well as trees bent down by the weight of fresh snow. Often it was hard finding the way through all that labyrinth. The path sometimes was very stepped and sometimes a bit flat but always going up. In total we walked three hours upwards and two hours back to the car park, climbing 600m. The top of the valley are three peaks called “Les Trois Becs” that in summer can be reached in about one and a half hours. With so much snow, after three hours we were totally exhausted and unable to go any further. At that point our foot prints were about half a metre deep, making our way really tiring, having to take a rest every few steps. It was clear that if we wanted to be back in the car park before it gets dark we had to go back. If not reaching the top we were hoping that at least we would be able to get over the tree level and so having a good view of the entire valley. Unfortunately it was not possible even if we had started to walk earlier. So we ate something and started the descent.

Small trees were also loaded with fresh snow, bent down by the weight.

It was going down when we realised how far we had walked. And the path looks a lot more stepped when you go down than when you go up and have to watch your feet constantly plus the big effort of opening the way in fresh snow.

We found in our way many beautiful corners. I could have taken hundreds of photographs. A place that I really liked is one where the valley is very narrow, like a gorge and where hundreds of icicles were hanging from the ceiling.

Back in the village, already feeling a very healthy stiffness in our legs, we went to have a glass of that local beer. At this time of the year they produce a “bière de Nöel” or Christmas beer which is a bit stronger. We were drinking to the mountain, who won that day.

Anybody dares to walk under this wall? These are real icicles!