Snapshots

There’s so much going on in the Aravis mountains at the moment that we could spend days writing about it all. Instead though we’re out enjoying it! So in summary here are 3 fantastic images from Tom of events that we enjoyed last weekend – all within 4 days of each other. The hot air balloon festival in Grand Bornand, a show jumping competition in La Clusaz and the Tour de France passing through St Jean de Sixt. Wish you were here? You should be!

Click on the images above for larger versions.

Transhumance – or the journey of the cows

Transhumance

At the beginning of June every year the inhabitants of St Jean, Grand Bornand and La Clusaz wait expectantly for the first true sign of summer – normally heralded at 5am on a weekend morning by the sound of hundreds of cow bells.

Although we’re rarely keen to be woken [...]

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A sad end to a local cycle race

The Time Megeve – Mont Blanc cycle race, held on 6th June this year,  is a well known race in these parts, one of the first serious rides of summer. With over 1200 riders it’s a sight to behold hammering through the alpine villages along the route. The ride starts and [...]

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The trouble with living in a tourist town…

St Jean roundabout out of season

…is that once the tourists have gone home EVERYTHING closes down for a few weeks!

Sunday 25th April was the official winter season end, meaning that as we got up on Monday morning and ventured to the bakery everything had shut up, everyone had left town overnight! The busy hustle [...]

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The Defi Foli 2010 aka the ‘Crazy Challenge’

Defi Foli Challenge La Clusaz

Every year the last Sunday in April heralds the end of the winter ski season in La Clusaz. The ski lifts are all free for the day and the majority of skiers wear fancy dress, creating a real party atmosphere. As the snow is getting quite slushy by then [...]

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Red coats in town

ESF Challenge competitors

As with thousands of Seasonaires celebrating the end of another ski season across the Alps we experienced the excesses of a ‘Friday night/Saturday morning’ in the middle of April.  Although ours wasn’t entirely typical.

The K-team plus some visiting friends headed for le Grand Bornand on [...]

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Spring Shades

Thones View

Spring in the mountains can throw up tones so vibrant they almost don’t seem real:

Taken on a mid-May evening from St. Jean de Sixt, as the setting sun briefly popped out behind the shoulder of Mont Lachat de Thones after a day of cloud and rain. The patchy snow is on [...]

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Diversions

Karibuni Office

Well, all good intentions, as ever, go out the window during the winter ski season here at Karibuni – as the observant will notice, it’s taken 6 months for the Karibuni Blog to move from an initial testing post to its now fully fledged form. For 16 weeks of [...]

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Skiing writing, righting skiing

Welcome to Karibuni’s new blog – check back here soon for coverage of the winter 2009 / 10 ski season along with our musings on life, the Aravis and everything . [...]

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