la randonnee

Yesterday I took a walk to see a bit of my surroundings, first walking through the village and up the slope, and then down and to the river. Grey clouds were beginning to pass over the mountains so I stayed relatively close to home. Doing "la randonnee" or walking is a national pastime in Switzerland; the extensive path network is well-marked with charming little yellow signs.

I found a nursery that had the "bat face" flower that Dad and I saw in Birmingham:


The clouds moving in from the south:



Today Guillemette (another intern) and I took a walk further up the mountains despite the light rain. We saw many wildflowers, some very familiar like Queen Anne's Lace, clover, and what looked like Scabiosa, but also some that were new to me like the autumn-blooming crocus. As we climbed higher, we entered a spruce forest of impressive heights:





This fascinating and curious pattern on the mountainsides is in fact created over time as the cows walk along the pastures. It is called "le pas de vaches" or the steps (or hooves) of the cows. These compelling traces of activity on the land show how culture has shaped the landscape, and in turn how the landscape has shaped the culture. The patchwork appearance of the pre-Alps, where areas of forest are interspersed with grassy pastures, is another result of cow-farming; the cows graze in these mountain pastures throughout the spring and summer. Otherwise, the entire mountainside would be covered in forest, the undulating shape of the slopes hidden behind the evergreen trees.