memorial for mine clearers on the ballon d'alsace.
since it was early march when we visited the vosges mountains, chances usually are high to find some snowy mountains ( the highest peaks of the vosges mountains are all over 1000 meters of altitude - perfect for snow conditions ). so on a pretty clear day our hosts and us made our way towards these kind of mountains, and we were indeed lucky! we stopped at the ballon d'alsace ( 1247 m ) first to enjoy some splendid views ( we even saw the swiss alps that day, something we have never been able to before! ) and later visited a ski piste in la bresse near the hohneck mountain ( 1363 m ). it was really windy up on the peaks ( it actually always is 😂 ), but it was worth it to brave that cold wind for the wonderful vistas and just trudging through snow ❤
a closer picture of the nude mine clearer dude. why he is naked, i actually don't know, but i guess the reason why he is upside down probably is because ( beware, this is kinda morbid? ) he might have been blown up by accidentally activating a mine? the memorial was built in 1950 after a few mine clearers lost their lives on that mountain, trying to, well, clear mines left there from the second world war.
this is the peak of the ballon d'alsace, and it promised us wide views all over the vosges mountains!
the building with the yellow facade is a hotel & restaurant ( l'hôtel du sommet ). we didn't have lunch there, but in a different restaurant a bit further up the road ( l'auberge du ballon d'alsace ), and i just wanted to mention real quick that the lunch we had in there after our little walk on the mountain was most delicious. we had a casserole dish called baeckeoffe ( it inspired my parents to remove dust from their old casserole pan and remake it at home. ) it's a very meaty dish ( they use pork, beef and mutton ) with lots of potatos, carrots, onions and all of that is cooking in the pan with even more of white wine ( alsatian of course, because, duh, it's the ballon d'alsace - the house mountain of the region? ). afterwards we had THE dessert of the vosges mountains, a warm pie with blueberries, tarte aux brimbelles. when it's the real deal, it's made with wild blueberries that colour your lips and teeth deeply blue! i love eating that pie, not only because it tastes awesome but it offers us all a reason to laugh at ourselves 😂
the slope up the ballon d'alsace. these cart ruts derive from a vehicle that flattens eventual snow amassments, so that skiers and snowboarders can use these slopes again, without riding over uneven bumps and the like. i kinda liked the patterns that are generated from that process!
a close-up of the cart ruts. so satisfying when they are not disturbed 😂
let me present you, the bernese alps. they're about 2 hours away from the vosges mountains, mesmerizing you with a breath-taking profile from afar. the most pointed peaks in this picture are situated on the left side to the middle: rosenhorn/wetterhorn, lauteraahorn/schreckhorn & the really terrifying finsteraahorn right in the middle ( the one that's looming like a pyramid up into the sky ). from the middle to the right there are even more peaks, the biggest ones being eiger, mönch & jungfrau. i've never been to any mountains that were higher than 1.500 meters, so seeing this mountain range from afar made me stare in awe at it, as the peaks of the bernese alps reach up between 3.000 to 4.200 meters. and you know, the character of these mountains is just totally different to the low-range mountains i am used to. these are sharp and creased rocks without ANY flora, which sounds utterly life-threatening to me 😂 still... i hope to get to see these someday anyway from a much closer distance... the sheer mass of these mountains will probably make my head explode, but i think it will be worth it. i mean, the forms they take, and how absolutely small i am in comparison to them... it must feel glorious ( and excitedly bone-crushing? ).
the mountain range in FRONT of the bernese alps ( can you see it? it's much darker ) does not belong to the vosges mountains but is a sub-alpine mountain range called the jura mountains! directly underneath the lauteraahorn/schreckhorn double peak is the hasenmatt mountain, which is 'only' about 1.400 meters high. it is not the highest mountain of the jura range ( which would be the crête de la neige with 1.720 meters - which is not visible here as it it situated outside the picture - should be in the far-southern parts of the jura mountains ).
and this is what the bernese alps look like if you don't have a zoom option on your camera 😅 right in front of you are the slopes of the ballon d'alsace, they are mainly used in winter for skiing and winter sports.
a statue of jeanne d'arc ( 1909 ) can be found on top of the mountain, but not because she has been there, but simply because the french people love their national symbols way too much. she was born not too far away from the vosges mountains though, but it is not evident that she ever visited this region.
view towards hohneck ( 1363 m - in the middle ) & kastelberg mountain ( 1350 m - ). i really do love seeing snow-capped peaks of mountains.
the ACTUAL view of the aforementioned peaks. i was really grateful for my camera that day, it being able to zoom in on these mountains.
this big valley is the vallée de la haute moselle ( upper moselle valley ), and the 'cities' you see down there are st-maurice-sur-moselle, fresse-sur-moselle, le thillot and maybe even my home town's twinning town ramonchamp ( where our french friends and hosts live ).
the iced over slopes on the ballon d'alsace glistening in the sun! 🌟you can see the bernese alps again here.
the path that leads you around the ballon d'alsace. it looks very windstill here, but let me tell you, it wasn't!
here's proof that it was very windy:
my hair got constantly messed around and my mom's pelt trimmings got shaken up as well 😂
the tête de rouge gazon ( 1186 m ) is in the area in the front and in the back there is the long-stretched marksteinkopf ( 1241 m ).
actual view again ( the tête de rouge gazon being the white peak on the left ). the next peak is the haut pers which hides the grand ballon behind it. then comes a little valley and then the molkenrain mountain can be seen. next to molkenrain mountain ( 1.125 m ), the peaks of the rossberg (1.191 m ) are next in close vicinity. notice the windswept ground! i really like when you can notice the force of nature in details like these.
because i couldn't get enough of this view of the bernese alps... ^^;
three mountain ranges in one picture, the vosges mountains we were situated in, then the jura mountains ( dark patch in the back ) and really far away the bernese alps.
this 1860 statue of the virgin mary also graces the top of ballon d'alsace. i love her sky-blue attire and her wide open arms!
i mean... look at her embracing you... so dramatic against the blue sky.
and one more ;)
took a photo of my dad taking a photo ;) the little mountain in the back is the ballon de servance ( 1216 m ).
the winds are so strong sometimes on these peaks that the fencing posts can't withhold it. when the weather gets warmer ( late spring to autumn ) you can also see cattle grazing the meadows and once we even encountered a few horses up there ( that was a really magical experience ❤ )
the l'hôtel du sommet again. don't know why i didn''t take a picture of the actual restaurant we ate in ^^; i guess the hotel was a bit more scenic? by the way, this is the col du ballon d'alsace, a mountain pass.
human tracks in the snow.
we soon left to 'quickly' drive to la bresse, which is really close to the hohneck mountain ( but about 40 minutes away from the ballon d'alsace ). it is one of the most popular ski areas in the vosges mountains, always quite jam-packed with skiiers and other winter sportspersons as the hohneck mountain offers quite a few ski pistes. it was one of the last official ski days in the mountains, so of course many people took that opportunity and headed there. we weren't there to ski, though, we just went there to be curious onlookers. strangely, despite us all loving snow, we aren't really ski people. we actually love sleigh rides way more and of course, just walking and hiking through wondrous winter wonderlands ;)
various ski lifts up the slope of les grandes feignes. it was not super busy while we were there, but busy enough for me ;P
as you can see, it was waaaaaay busier in the valley than on the slopes. many families with children were around to practice on more even ground before going up the higher slopes. the building on the right is a big hotel, la residence des grandes feignes, which of course also helps bringing in lots of people to these ski slopes.
after a little time spent here, we made our way home over the hohneck mountain passes back to ramonchamp where we parted with our dear hosts after a long chat. i love spending time with them, as i get to practice my very rusty french and they are really warm and hospitable, always giving us good tips and leading us to secret beautiful places. i really want to speak & comprehend french more fluidly, but i have a little bit of a hard time with it. it's not that i do not understand it, i actually comprehend it well when you give me a french text to read, but listening to local people ( they often talk too QUICK and swallow up syllables and words ) and forming coherent sentences is difficult for me. but i still love the french language and i am always eager to try to speak french whenever we visit. francine, our host, always tells me that i should visit her for a whole month and then my french would be perfect 😅 i wish it was that easy.
anyway they're lovely people and spending time with them always feels nice and solid, like they are so very uncomplicated which does suit us well, since we also seem to be made of the same wood. that's why over the years we have been visiting our twin city a real friendship has developed between us all and it's made me also develop a relationship to france that is full of fondness for it, full of love ❤
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