About two years ago we went to the national park Les Ecrins - to La Berarde and its amazing Vénéon valley. At that time we hiked south until La Pilatte Glacier (previous photo-report is here). This time we tried to explore the northern part of the valley and went to see the famous among climbers La Meije mountain.
We went by bus from Grenoble and due to this and other factors had a pretty limited time-schedule. Anyway it is pretty amazing that you can pay 6 euros 60 cents and within three hours go by public transport to almost 2,000 meters altitude to the central part of the national park.
On the way we passed Bourg-Oisans, popular thanks to Tour de France and having cute morning market, as well as commune of St.-Cristophe-en-Oisans and Venosc, a gateway to Les Deux Alpes.
Due to such combination, on the way to La Berarde one may see many cyclists, people with mountain bikes, skies or snowboards, as well as kayakers, rafters, para-gliders and rock-climbers. Clearly french people really know what to do with their weekends or holidays!
La Berard is very nice, even on Saturday during the most touristic / vacancies period of the year, it is very calm and pretty village and there are only rare hikers and climbers on mountain trails.
Sky is crystal blue, air is chilly in the morning and mountain torrents are transparent and cold. Wonderful destination for a day hike - the proof to these words is shown below.
La Meije (3984 m a.s.l.)
