Tuesday 22 June 2010

Le Bettex

Mont Blanc

The final day of our short stay in the Alps and just time this morning for a short stroll at Bettex, a small ski station near St Gervais.
We parked by the ski lift at 1400m and took a track along the side of the slope. Almost immediately there was the fine view towards Mont Blanc (4810m) shown above.

Soon we passed a family of goats.



And then an even more splendid view of the mountain. By the expedient of lying down to take the photo, it was possible to also get in the carpet of flowers.



There were flower meadows on both sides with different mixes of flowers. It would be easy to imagine that some long-ago gardener had pondered the impact of different mixes. A field on the right had an unusual concentration of Common Bistort.



At length we emerged at another ski station - slightly forlorn-looking without the snow - and followed a winding road through an interesting and varied selection of ski chalets back to the start point.

Conditions: mainly cloudy, mild

Distance: only a couple of miles

Rating: four stars. Beautiful flower meadows and wonderful views towards Mont Blanc.


Flowers of the day

There were so many beautiful flowers everywhere, it was hard to know where to start - and when to stop. I enjoyed this Goat's Beard (tragopogon pratensis)...



... and this Common Spotted Orchid.

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