Best Summer Hikes – Exploring the Tarantaise Valley | Adventure Yogi
Best Summer Hikes
Le Monal
We love this hike in the Tarantasie Valley! To start, it’s a relatively easy walk as you traverse the mountainside from Sainte Foy resort to the ancient farming hamlet of Le Monal. It offers stunning views of the Mont Pourri glacier across the valley and beyond! We start off on a track that meanders through the pine trees which offer welcome shade on hot days. After that, climbing steadily but gently we come out of the trees into the meadows below the hamlet of Echaillon. Honestly, the Alpine flowers are stunning here! We get our first clear view across the valley to the Mont Pourri glacier of which we’ve seen tantalising glimpses through the trees lower down. From there, Echaillon is a tiny hamlet of just a handful of houses. Delightfully, a mountain spring allows us to fill our water bottles with cool, refreshing mountain spring water as we hike which is just one of the reasons we think this is one of the best summer hikes!
It gets better and better!
From there, the path continues through the village to the bridge over the bubbling mountain stream. Then, we get into the meadows where we get our first glimpse of Le Monal. Here you can enjoy a listed village with its own chapel and authentic Alpine chalets dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Truly, it is beautiful and the ancient architectural features have been preserved, including the stone “fridges”! These are stone structures built above the streams in which fresh produce was stored to keep it cool. Also, a dairy that still makes the delicious local Beaufort, Tomme and Persillé cheeses in the traditional way!
Usually, we indulge in a platter of local cheese and charcuterie accompanied by freshly baked baguette washed down with a cool glass of Apremont, the local white wine! This is enjoyed at the refuge before making our way back down the mountain.
Chapelle Saint Clair at Le Monal
Beautiful alpine meadows
Vallon de la Sassière
There is a reason this is this is one of our best summer hikes. Magically, this is where we go for our sunrise yoga practice! Situated high in the valley above the Lac de Chevril with views across to the Grand Motte glacier at Tignes. To start, we drive up the narrow winding road high above the lake to reach the start of the walk. Then, the path takes us into the hanging valley. We watch the dawn slowly break as we take our silent walk to the very edge of the Lac de la Sassiere where we hold our sunrise yoga practice. It’s such a magical place to practice. As you can imagine, it is really peaceful at that early hour. You wait, the moment when the sun rises above the mountains and bathes us in its golden light is unmissable! Then, after our practice and restorative picnic brunch, we search for the Edelweiss flowers. You will see that they grow beside the lake before making our way back down the mountain in the growing warmth of the sunshine. Truly, this is one of our favourite and best summer hikes.
Montseti Ridge and Lac Noir
Honestly, this is a stunning walk and one of our favourite summer hikes that climb up from the Vallon du Mercuel. At the start, once over the Montseti Ridge, we go down into the Vallon du Charvet to the other side. To end, we take a refreshing dip in Lac Noir near the top of the climb is very welcome on hot days! Even better are the chilled drinks in the Refuge du Ruitor close to the finish!
Sound good? Click on the link below and join us yourself!
