A Car Trip Up Le Saleve, France, Part I

We went up Le Saleve in France on Saturday. It's a small cliff-edged hill (or mountain) approximately 1100-1400 meters high, on the East side of Geneva just outside the Swiss border. There are a several ways to get to the top: driving by car, cable car, cycling and even hiking. A good number of years ago we hiked up the cliff face on a dirt path.



.To the left of this view, much of the cliff face has been quarried, leaving the light-colored bare rock to view.


The road at the base of Le Saleve is now lined with many new houses. There has been a lot of construction in this area in recent years.










There are pretty flower-lined streets and sidewalks.





.Looking up you can see undisturbed nature in its rugged beauty.If you look closely, you can see paragliders. This is a very popular sport on Le Saleve. The sport involves running down a tilted platform off the edge of the cliff - that is a sport for the brave-hearted, and isn't something I could persuade myself to do, no matter how lovely it might be to glide around up high.Fortunately, the world is made up of many different types of people!





As we make our ascent from the base of Le Saleve we see flashes of bright color from the side of the road.











The hills are bright green after all the rain we've had recently.





Looking back it's possible to see the valley south of Geneva.


The road starts out gentle, but further up it winds in tight bends with very steep gradients, forcing the driver to first gear on a couple of the curves.












On the way up we were surrounded by woods.





Nearing the top the trees thin out and the sun on the grass is a welcome sight.

On reaching the top we were greeted by open fields and a vast expanse of sky.




My most favorite scene of the trip is this one of the field and the bales of hay.Shortly after this we reached a spot with fantastic views over the other side of Le Saleve. Stay tuned to see them!