A History Lesson

VIZILLE TO LAKE LAFFREY

You'll spot that this route is also not all the close to Burgess Hill but it was Friday and so you've found it here:

A bus ride from Grenoble took us to the Chateau at Vizille which houses the Museum of the French Revolution. It's free and the paintings are astounding. A band did their sound check in the grounds which is also a splendid park with a lake and a deer park beyond. 25 degrees, sunshine and sandwiches with the ducks. All good so far.

This is a small lesson on not quite doing your research. If you do a Google on walking routes, you'll come up with countless Komoot, Strava, Alltrails examples. This is ok but these might lack the detail of definitive rights of way or even ones that make for a pleasant journey. Know then that there are reassuring red and white striped GR routes in France, the sentier de grande randonnée. These appear to be easier to find on the ground than doing an internet search on location. After a bit of trying, I came across a walking leaflet on the mobile and we decided to extend our park trip to Laffrey and the lake with the kids in tow.

Splendid. In my mind, I imagined a pleasant ramble through the woods and the serenity of the alpine lakes. What I failed to appreciate, is the leaflet describes a section of the GR 549 in the opposite direction and what would have been a bus ride to Laffrey with a downhill rewarded by a finish in pleasant parkland, became a swift circuit of the park, bar the deer, followed by a bit of misdirection and an unremitting slog to 3000 feet. Even the fleeing Huguenots of 1685, massacred on part of this route were going the other way.

Still, it was a gorgeous Spring walk and we did get to dip our feet in the crystal waters, while consuming ice-creams.

On the eastern edge of the park is a high wall with the appropriately named Chemin des Murs running south alongside. Our route took us to Saint Pierre de Méssage and a water point by the toilet. Thank goodness because it was hot. Over the Romanche river, the signs were good, as we joined the GR route. Right up to the Chemin de l'Orée du Bois and the entrance to the beautiful woods, all was going well but somewhere here we missed our intended way and ended up heading downhill to the hydroelectric power station at Jouchy.

Following the pipe back up was galling but this was just the start of the climb to the road at La Frette. There were great views and a huge ants nest but little humour. At the road there were some confusing private road signs to ignore as we zig-zagged up to Lake Mort or the Dead Lake. A relief to be on the flat, it was a short walk to Lake Laffrey, where we were able to get our feet out in the freezing water. We could have spent longer but the last bus timing back to Grenoble was in doubt and so we hovered at the bus stop instead.