Layover in Vernet les Bains

May 26, 2014

A hike to Cascade Anglais

The weather came to our aid today, helping us do a better job of resting on our rest day. The forecast was for significant rain throughout the day, so we scrapped plans for taking a longer hike and anticipated mostly lying around catching up on our reading.

Coming out from breakfast though we were happy to see things solidly overcast but dry for the moment, so we set out to see what we could before the rains returned. As it happened, we took in quite a bit - we walked out of town and turned off on the first walking route we came to - the hike to Cascade Anglais (English Falls). It was a very pretty creekside path through mixed deciduous woods dominated by chestnut and oak. The latter half of the hike became a bit of a scramble, mediated by intermittent bridges and plank walkways. I'm not really sure if we made it to English Falls itself though - the trail ended abruptly at the base of a significant fall, but it looked like it may have continued on belond the other side of the stream if conditions had been drier or the water lower.

We returned to our room a bit after noon and settled in for a leisurely afternoon. An hour or so later the rains came, at times heavily, and lasted until early evening. As if on schedule though they ended abruptly right at 6, and by the time we ventured out for dinner it was dry, clearing, and cold.

We enjoyed our stay in Vernet, a pretty little spa at the base of the mountains. The older, upper town is built on a small hill crowned by a small restored castle and the church of Saint Saturnin. Our restaurant is at the top of the hill, so between general meanderings and dinner excursions we traversed its slope seven or eight times, seemingly finding a different route each time through its confusing matrix of alleys, crooked streets and stairways.

A dusting of fresh snow dropped on the mountain last night

Cascade du Saint Vincent, the lower falls on the hike.

Much of the route was well developed, with intermittent bridges and plank walkways

The endpoint of the hike for us, at what I think is Cascade Anglais. It is much larger than it looks here, because it is blocked by the granite in the foreground. We'd have liked to round the corner for a full look at the falls, but it was too slick and wet everywhere.

The best sight of the day, and square in our path - a fire salamander! Lucky we didn't step on it.

We were lucky to get the walk in. Most of the rest of the day was about like this.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0