ascending the chemin des roches ( the path of rocks ).
the path of rocks snakes up right behind our home in le val-d'ajol, and it is quite a steep one. it goes up about 200 meters in altitude for a very short length of about 1km or so - rising from about 400 meters to 650. but when you are up on the top, the hike is pretty easy-going and rewards you with idyllic landscapes and super old crumbling structures.
we made this hike on a very rainy day, we just didn't want to sit inside all day and let cabin fever get to us, so we went and took umbrellas with us and then set out to explore our HUGE 'backyard'. our path lead us past the 'haut des champs' woods, along the 'route de rapaumont', which leads you to the little hamlet of rapaumont. from there we made our way through 'le grand talhoux', another small forest until we ended up in 'la rochotte' ( le val-d'ajol has many hamlets 😉 ). la rochotte is in the valley of the méreilles stream again, in which leyval is also situated in, our headquarter hamlet. so from there we made our way back home, along the méreille and as we returned in leyval we were rewarded with a wonderful sunset situation, illuminating the peaks of 'le haut du mont', a double-peaked mountain with up to 712 meters of altitude.
in rainy weather the vosges mountains seem even more mysterious and enchanted than usual, as the landscapes and the surroundings give off an air of desolation and desertion, highlighting the old and ancient farms strewn all over the hills and mountains even more. every now and then you discover some old stone dwellings that crumble apart or come upon an abandoned house. even the inhabited homes and used buildings exude air of antiquity, mainly because they are made out of roughly milled igneous rocks and sandstones and overgrown with lichen & moss. a big part of le val-d'ajol's landscape are also the many wayside crosses. there are said to be 145 of them on the properties of the community. they really add to the charm of the landscape and i love to stumble upon them in the more remote parts of the village ❤ i don't believe in god at all, but i do love the crosses for the atmosphere they add to the scenery.
mossy rocks like these can be found everywhere in the woods, and keep you guessing about their origin or their intented use. i love to imagine that, because of the way some of these are stacked on top of each other, it is an indication that they were some kind of shelters and then collapsed at some point and then never rebuilt. or they were just repositories for later house building.
not far away from a farm ( le clos léry - where they offer horse rides, rooms, delicious local products and courses on nettle plants ) there is one of the crosses i talked about earlier. it's a simple type of cross, but sometimes you will encounter more elaborate ones as well!
more crumbling structures, having once been enclosures probably. many of the old farms had enclosures in the past to prevent theft of their cattle and produce.
sometimes i have the urge to take these stones and start rebuilding them, into a shelter, or a little repose, decking them out with all kinds of plants and other decorating elements.maybe this structure has once been a barn or storage garage. no matter what it was, it's in the process to be lost for the world to see, and sometimes that makes me sad. at the same time i do love such structures as they add such mystery to such a remote landscape that are the vosges mountains.
now the rubble from the picture prior to this takes a little more form from a different perspective. i love how you are able to see how they fitted the rocks to match with each other. it's apparent that a form of infilling the structure with adobe or brickearth is nonexistant, which is something you find in germany all the time. houses in france are often completely made out of rocks, with very little use of wood nor lots of plastering. this is something that really strikes me all the time, and it's one of the things i love the most about the traditional architecture in france.
also, french people seem to like to maintain that dilapidated chic, it is very apparent in many cities and other regions all over the country. while in germany many old buildings are being repaired in a way that makes them shiny and polished again, french people don't do that at such an extent. they make repairs, they restore facades, but rarely in a way that feels new and clean. it always has this air of 'laissez-faire' - let nature do its course on the architecture.
here's a great example of the typical archways of the vosges mountains.
also a very typical element of local architecture are the flagstones made out of sandstones or schist. they were often used as rooftop coverage, and some of these so called 'laves' survived into modern times, you can find them every now and then. not everyone uses them as rooftop coverage, though, some even built little edifices with them.
a little refuge for hikers and bikers. apparently it belongs to a family called jacquot, but it's pretty strange to me to call this your own, when everyone's mom and dad can access it freely, without any hindrances.
a tiny fir squeezed between a strange upstanding rock and a deciduous tree.
this house seemed abandoned, though the roof and the use of concrete stones in the front indicated that maybe they were in the middle of renovating it. it awoke desires in me to move to the vosges mountains and restore my very own little mountain dwelling ( i have this desire everytime we visit the vosges mountains, lol ^^; )
we reached a very good viewpoint on the fields of rapaumont ( les champs de rapaumont ) where you could look out into the direction of faymont, another district of le val-d'ajol. it's situated in the main valley of the community through which the combeauté river is running.
someone set up a really cool picknick area, using these huge rocks as benches and a table.
arriving in the tiny hamlet of rapaumont you'll discover more of those great old farm houses. i loved the little line of snowdrops in the garden of this house!
there's an absolutely great abandoned building nearby that garden, that is looming ominously above you as you pass it by.
it hurts my heart to see it go to waste, but then again, it also excites me to no end. do you also have this problem that you am really enthusiastic about abandoned places, but also want to cry over how they are not appreciated enough to bring them back to life?
but you know, these old expiring structures surely make for interesting photo motives... and i'm not sure i want to live in a world where there's no sign of decay anywhere. it kinda makes you feel alive...?
in the front the house was cladded with rhomb slates, but they were slowly getting loose one by one, falling down.
signs of life provided by even more snowdrops on the ground!
a bit further away we passed by a home that had a real messy backyard, with all kinds of junk in it... and an unleashed dog. since many properties in the mountains are not fenced off, this dog came running and barking and we were quickly hurrying forward to keep far away from that critter. even though we know that most of the dogs running around in the mountains are more bark than attack, we still have lots of respect for them, as you never know how they will view you. it's something we had to get used to while visiting the vosges, we are not familiar with free-running dogs in places that have no fences ( germany either puts their dogs onto leashes, or behind a fenced in property ). here, dogs roam freely on the unfenced property and they often come a-running as soon as they hear anyone approaching. most of them seem to be trained to only scare away the passerby with loud barking, and that, my dear friends, is QUITE well-working. a dog that approaches quickly while barking is a very effective way to make you walk a tad bit faster ^^;
crushed brickstones as lane filling.
the man with two umbrellas. the colourful one was mine. i don't know anymore, why i gave it to my dad, but it looked cute.
through le grand talhoux we walked and discovered some tree beings, throwing up their arms in... agony? resignment?
the little méreille stream bore quite a lot of water and even left its bed every now and then. the month of march usually means the beginning of snowmelt, so of course rivers and streams carry a lot more water during that time.
a tiny cross, with a jesus relief on the path up to our chalet.
these little snowdrops are my favourite thing in early spring. their white blossoms always excite me and let me anticipate the beautiful season of spring!
the two peaks of 'le haut du mont'. the road down in the valley is the road to the hamlet of hamanxard, you can also see the méreille stream here and in the far back there's the hamlets of outremont and les angleys. this view is the best view in my opinion and it's a similar view we have when we look out of the kitchen and from the terrace of our chalet. sometimes the peaks are in clouds, sometimes they are dipped in early or late sunlight. i really love it ❤
after it rained all day, the wash of sunlight over the mountains was pure delight!
the core of leyval, our headquarter hamlet. in the back there's our chalet ( wooden house ).
we also have a wayside cross ( how couldn't we, every hamlet needs one for protection, i guess 😂 )
i prepared a few words to contextualize crumbling structures to the corona virus, but discarded them quickly, as i felt that comparing these structures to the things happening right now to all of us, was kind of unbefitting. yes, there is beauty in the crumbling, but often i feel that we are only able to appreciate it, when things are long gone. when you are right in the middle of a collapse finding beauty in it is impossible for quite a few people. we can't yet see what this crisis will gift us in the long run, but i hope when all of this is finally behind us, and we found solutions to conquer this obstacle... i really hope we can look back at this time and appreciate it, for what it has given to us. i hope we won't look back entirely on the things that it took from us, but also the new opportunities and tools that were given to us to make a change. i hope things will change in society! we can't continue on after this like before the virus. things need to change. we need to rethink every crumbling structure, and find better and more social solutions for us all. and then, maybe, we can look back and say again: there's beauty in collapse and decay and it all wasn't for nothing.
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