Saturday was mountain day! We took the bus up to Isola 2000 which is close to the Italian border, in the Southern Alps. The journey took 2 and a half hours, and buses and I aren’t always the best of friends, but this was 100% worth it. We followed the Var river upstream closer to its source, driving along the steep V-shaped valley (merci GCSE Geography!) as palm trees turned to pine trees, it got narrower and narrower, and the valley sides got steeper and steeper until they turned into mountains.
We passed dozens of hilltop villages, some of them appearing to teeter on the brink, with all the houses piled up on top of each other and a church tower crowning every one. As we got nearer the Alps we drove through tunnels carved through the hillside. The descriptions we found for it were the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Disney ride, and Mario Kart.Isn’t it weird the descriptions have gone full circle and we are now using the man made to described the natural (and maybe a bit sad?) We all thought it though – I even saw a little dilapidated rope bridge missing a few wooden slats…
Then we passed the snow line and we were there! There was snow everywhere, and everytime we turned the corner of the hairpin bends, there were the Alps in full view. It was so sunny for a January day. And how beautiful! It felt great just to be on top of a mountain and breathe really deeply, it was such a good feeling!
Surrounded by snow and pine trees, Laura and I chilled (literally, sorry, I couldn’t resist) on some deck chairs on the mountainside while the others skied and snowboarded down the slopes. We drank hot chocolate in probably the most memorable setting of my life, and then moved inside when we couldn’t feel our toes to warm up with some vin chaud and crepes au nutella.
Miam miam
A slightly hairy moment occurred when we thought we were going to miss the last bus back to Nice and be stranded in the mountains overnight ( would that really have been such a bad thing?) but we made it in the nick of time and half dozed, half watched the sunset fade over the mountains on our way home.
It was so beautiful that no words I use can really justify it at all. Mountains are such powerful imagery used to show the awesome might of nature and our Creator, that it was almost a bit surreal to actually be on a proper one. Now whenever I sing of the mountains trembling or soaring above them, I have a real mental picture to help me envisage it. Result.
One More Step Along The World I Go... 