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Map of hikes around Annecy featured on the blog

Here is a map of all the hike reports around Annecy featured on this blog:

There are also some simple city walks and a few bike routes. It is possible to click on the marker and a link to the corresponding blog page will be shown on the left. In the future, I will try to add hikes to it whenever I make a new post. I have also added a link on the right side of the blog.

For convenience, here is a KML with all the hikes that can be opened in Google Earth.

I know the map looks quite messy but my former blog provider (Wordpress.com) only allowed Google Maps to be embedded so I went with Google My Maps. It is not as full-featured as other hike-oriented websites but, since I moved to a new host, I intend to make a better version in the near future.

Vidange du Rhône 2021

A few weeks ago, the Vidange du Rhône (or Chasses du Rhône, meaning Flushing of the Rhône) took place between Barrage de Génissiat (Genissiat Dam) in France and Barrage de Verbois (Verbois Dam) in Geneva. Both the CNR (Compagnie Nationale du Rhône), which manage the dams on the French side, and the SIG (Services Industriels de Genève) cooperate on this operation: It is performed every few years in order to purge sediments brought into the Rhône river by the Arve, which accumulate and increase the risk of floods.

For a few days, the dams in the area are opened and their reservoirs emptied, in order to increase the discharge rate with the goal of flushing the sediments from the river bed. The river then turns gray, just like the Arve. Another side effect is that the level of the Rhône is lowered, almost as low as before dams were built along the river so it becomes quite the view. One other, less happy, consequence is that it is a bit of a fish apocalypse, with many of them dying because of the increase in solids suspended in the water.

I went to see this phenomenon in the area around Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, first in Éloise near Pont de Grésin, as part of a hike. Then a few days later, I visited Bellegarde itself just for this purpose and walked along the Rhône. Because of the the Corona restrictions on border crossings, unfortunately, I couldn’t visit the area upstream of the Verbois Dam in Geneva.

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Hike to Rocher de Montmélian, Chemin des Vignes, Tours de Chignin & Mont Ronjou

At the beginning of 2020, I went on a hike below the southern tip of the Bauges mountains: Starting in Montmélian, I went up to Rocher de Montélian and visited the Christ d’Arbin nearby then walked on Chemin des Vignes (Vineyard Trail) until Chignin, visited the ruins of the medieval fortifications there and went up to Mont Ronjou at the end of the day.

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