Hiking around Laffrey, France
Date: September 16, 2018 – September 20, 2018
Location: Laffrey, France
After having lunch, we went for a hike with Karine, Niki and Ouzo. It started by walking through cow pastures.
Later in the hike there was a nice trail in the woods.
The hike provided a really nice view of a couple of the lakes, Grand Lac de Laffrey and Lac de Pétichet.
It was hazy but the large group of buildings in the distance is Grenoble, where we previously watched a stage of the Tour de France.
Along the trail there were a lot of bushes with what first looked like blueberries, except that the berries were very large. They also had a pit in them. We don’t know what they were and Karine said that they may be bad so we didn’t eat any.
After the hike, Karine and Christophe showed us how to get to the edge of Lac de Pétichet.
They then took us to a couple lookouts along Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet and Le Drac.
September 17, 2018
Pierre Percée
Before Karine and Christophe left for their vacation, they told us about several hikes in the area and provided us with a hiking map. One of the places they recommended hiking to was Pierre Percée. Pierre Percée is a natural stone arch on the hill of Matheysine.
On the way to Pierre Percée there were nice views.
At one point we reached a road that we were not expecting, and farther along realized that we were off the trail, so we ended up hiking a longer loop to get to Pierre Percée.
Google Maps said the below picture was a trail, and by taking that trail it would be seven minutes quicker than going on the wider trail. We decided to try it, but soon turned around as we couldn’t find the trail at all and were just pushing branches out of the way. When we got back to the wider trail Brian realized that his sunglasses fell off. He went to look for them and was able to find them. Instead of saving time we added about another 15 minutes.
We finally made it to the top of Matheysine.
Here is Pierre Percée.
On the way back, we expected we would be able to see where we took the wrong turn that lead us on the incorrect path. We didn’t find the exact spot where we would have taken a different direction. We suddenly got to an intersection that we remembered and were surprised that we were already there.
Overall, the hike was very pleasant. Instead of a three hour out-and-back hike, we turned it into a 5-hour hike.
When we got back to the house we played with Niki and Ouzo, but they preferred to watch Brian look for the ball that he threw, instead of going after it.
September 18, 2018
Passerelle du Drac – Himalayan Bridge Hike
Another hike that Karine and Christophe recommended was the Himalayan bridge hike. There are two Himalayan bridges that go over the Drac and Ebron rivers. A Himalayan bridge is similar to a suspension bridge.
This is where we parked to walk down to the Himalayan bridge over the Drac river.
We took switchbacks down to the bridge.
The bridge is 220 meters long, around 722 feet, and 45 meters from the surface of the water, around 147 feet.
The bridge did move around when we walked on it and it was quite windy.
Brian went out to the middle and this was the view.
The bridge is made with metal grates that you walk on, so there are many tiny holes that show what is below.
While you can hike a look by going over the Ebron bridge and then taking a ferry back, we turned around after seeing Passerelle du Drac.
The area around Laffrey is beautiful. with tons of hiking. Everywhere you look in the distance there are mountains.
We very much enjoyed our stay. Karine and Christophe were extremely warm and kind hosts, and we had a great time watching over and playing with Niki and Ouzo!
