With Neil taking the car today, the kids and I explored our new town of St Gervais les Bains and surrounds. On the way through the village yesterday the kids' eagle eyes spotted a playground so a visit there was on the agenda. St Gervais les Bains is a pretty town half way up a hill side looking down to the wide main valley below. We are now in a much more populated area than last week so there is much more choice of shops, restaurants and boulangeries (the playgrounds are bigger too). The downside of course is that there is much more traffic and people. The town is still lively even now that tourist season officially finished last week and the French are back at school and work.
The playground was fantastic and the kids had a ball climbing, sliding and chasing each other. We only left as we were beginning to melt in the midday sun (summer has reappeared).
Neil arrived home in the late morning and after our usual baguette and brie lunch we headed off for our afternoon family activity which was the Animal Parc on a peak near Les Houches, a town between St Gervais and Chamonix. It was an adventure just getting there. Once we turned off the motorway we were directed by Victoria (our sat nav) up a road that literally went up multiple hairpin corners. We finally reached the sign for the Parc and read where all the car parks were. There were 4 car parks ranging from 1km from the entrance to 300m so we kept going knowing that Callum would not walk 1km. This meant that the road thinned dramatically, not helped by the addition of a painted foot path for those that have parked in the lower car parks. We made it to car park 1 which had no spaces but also no turning circle. Above us was a sloping paddock and the sideof the road drop sharply away into forest, so I navigated Neil as close as possible to the vertical drop so he could turn the car around and luckily as we were doing so someone came to their car and left. By now we were all wondering what this park was going to be like perched on a peak. After walking the promised 300m (which was still up and around 3 hairpin corners) we reached the Parc entrance that had a proud sign stating we were at 1,534 metres. On entering we were given a map and let loose in an open space with all the animals as it was a free range park with no cages. There were marked paths that we were to keep to which went in different directions around the park, up more hill (the kids had had enough of climbing by now), along a wide open space which we found out was a disused airstrip, and around a rocky hill.
All the animals in the park were native to the mountains, they kept their distance however were very used to people so were not overly shy. At the end of our circuit we managed to see all the animals on the brochure from mountain goats with huge horns to chamois and marmots. My favourite was the beautiful deer with massive antlers. An added extra about the park was "the view".
We were across the valley from Mont Blanc so we had a breath taking view of the mountain with its numerous glaciers. Being at the altitude that we were, we were a third of the way up Mont Blanc so we were getting a very different view from the valley floor. It was a lovely afternoon and seeing the animals in their natural habitat was great. In the evening we were treated to a mountain electrical storm which was quite spectacular at times. I must remember to bring my tripod into the house to try and get a photo of a lightning bolt as more evening storms are forecast this week. A fun first full day in the northern Alps.
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