No less delightful, though in a different way, is the winding walk by
the river. The Ain here rushes past with a torrent like thunder, and
rolls and tosses over a stony bed, having on either side green slopes
and shady ways. Those travellers, like myself, contented with a bit of
modest mountaineering, will delight in the three hours' climb of Mount
Rivol, a broad pyramidal mountain, eight hundred yards in height,
dominating the town. A very beautiful walk is this for fairly good
walkers, and though the sun is intense, the air is sharp and
penetrating. On our way, we find plenty of ripe wild mulberries with
which to refresh ourselves, and abundance of the blue-fringed gentian to
delight our eyes.
So steep are these mountain sides, that it is like scaling a wall, but
after an hour and a half we are rewarded by finding ourselves on the
top; a broad plateau covering many acres richly cultivated, with
farm-buildings in the centre. Here we enjoy one of those magnificent
panoramas so plentiful in the Jura, and which must be seen to be
realized. On one side we have the verdant valley of the Ain, the river
flowing gently through green fields and softly dimpled hills; on
another, Andelot with its bridge and the lofty rocks bristling round
Salins; on the third side, the road leading to Pontarlier amid
pine-forest and limestone crags, and above this, a sight more majestic
still, namely, the vast parallel ranges of the Jura, deepest purple,
crested in the far away distance with a silvery peak whose name takes
our very breath away.
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