Le Grammont
Today Tanya and I walked up Le Grammont with some friends. Le Grammont is one of the taller peaks right on the side of Lac Léman, which means it is a prominent sight during everyday life in Lausanne. Accordingly, it has been high up on my list of peaks to climb for ages. We set off early because there were storms forecast for the afternoon, and the day started well because we walked past a gigantic snail.
Huge snail!
The path up climbs through forest to the Lac de Taney, and its associated village, which coincidentally is also called Taney. Afterwards the track continues through alpine meadows, replete with wild-flowers and cows concentrating hard on chewing slowly.
A friendly cow. Note large bell.
Once we were up on the ridge of Grammont, Lac Léman appeared, spread magnificently below like a blue blanket speckled with sails. The steep hills of Lavaux looked flat and puffy clouds hung over the patchwork country behind.
Nearing the top.
From the top we could also see some of the big peaks of the Alps - the trio of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, and the Mont Blanc Massif.
Olivier taking in the view.
We didn't really want to return the same way, so we launched off down the north-east flank and through steep flower-filled grass to come back to Taney from the eastern side of Grammont.
Descending, with the Rhone in the valley below.
Lac de Taney and Taney.
After our walk we headed back to town for a swim in the lake and a beer. There the forecast afternoon storm materialised, and it was a big one. It came screaming in over the lake, lightning flashing and thunder clapping. Meanwhile, behind where we were sitting, people working for the wine region started sending up firework-style rockets with cloud-seeding agents. These, it turns out, are designed to cause the storm to dump rain and not crop-damaging hail — it didn't work, the storm hailed anyway. The thunder from one side, exploding cloud-seeding on the other side, and rising winds sent us scampering on our way.
The start of the storm on the other side of the lake.
Storm getting bigger and badder.
What with the massive storm, a nice walk in the hills, and that huge snail, it was a pretty exciting Sunday.