Winter Wonderland of Cirque du Fer-a-Cheval, France

Zagan the motorhome has been out for a day trip today, and is now parked on the other side of the free motorhome aire at Sixt Fer a Cheval (N46.05711, E6.78069), a bit further away from the road noise.

Last night we marvelled at a motorhome which turned up after dark. By then the road was pretty clear thanks to the snow plough doing a couple of runs as the snow was falling, but still to drive up here in the dark would take some snow balls, much bigger ones than we have. We assumed they were either local or from a nearby country – Italian or Swiss, but no they were British.

No cloud today. We’re surrounded by mountains we couldn’t see yesterday!

Figuring we could learn much from someone who had obviously done this before, Jay popped over to say hello on his way back from the bins this morning, while I battled to get Charlie out of his bed and into his coat for a walk. Once trussed up against the cold, both Charlie and I, we wandered over and met Paul and Caroline, seasoned winter motorhomers who also like to snowboard, climb and various other athletic activities that put us to shame.

We only had a short time talking to them as they were heading off to the next resort to see if they could catch some board action, but while we chatted they told us about some great walks further up the valley. Buoyed on by their ability to drive in the snow, we nipped into the tourist office on our morning walk and grabbed a free map along with an explanation where we could go in the winter due to the avalanche risk.

I love that it’s a priority to clear the snow in the graveyard while the pavements are thick with it.

Heading up the valley we bottled it when the road went white due to lack of snowplough action, and, as advised by the nice lady in the tourist office, parked Zagan in the last village a couple of kilometres from end of the road. Leaving Charlie in his bed, his favourite place, we walked along the Nordic Ski runs to the Cirque du Fer-a-Cheval; a huge semi-circle of rock walls about 5km long and up to 700m in places. In summer the rocks are strewn with waterfalls, in the winter these waterfalls turn to ice.

Snow laid thick in the clearing at the bottom of the rocks, so with soggy trouser bottoms we took sanctuary in the restaurant for a while, nursing a hot chocolate by the warmth of the woodburning stove. That was until a large group arrived for a meal and the stove was spun around to face them. We did feel a bit hard done by, but this was overtaken by awe at the spinning stove.

Lunch for us was snacks on a snow-covered picnic bench in the middle of more ski tracks, drinking in the views around us. But, all too soon the clouds started to descend and the wind picked up, time to wander back to Zagan.

On our way back we passed a group of huskies who had been out for a run in the snow, they set off at the same time as we did, but I don’t think they stopped in a restaurant, so perhaps did a tad more exercise than we did. Back in Zagan a sleepy pooch greeted us, then realising it was lunchtime, proceeded to bound around the van barking his demands for food.

Much better behaved than pampered pooch!

We arrived back at the aire just as the rain started, dissolving the snow on the ground around us. I’m so glad we came up here yesterday, as it was great to be snowed on knowing you are stocked up enough to stay a week if you needed to. Tomorrow we’ll head off, so this afternoon the maps have been out to see where to go next. We’ve read that the Men’s Downhill Skiing is in Chamonix on 19 February, that might be a fun party to head for, so we just need to decide where to go between now and then – it’s a nice problem to have.

Ju x