Читать книгу The GR5 Trail - Vosges and Jura. Schirmeck to Lac Léman, and the GR53 онлайн

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Vosges landscape from Le Grand Ballon (Section 6)

In the north of the region the Northern Vosges is a land of tranquil forests where people are few and wildlife is undisturbed. Nature has eroded the sandstone here to leave spectacular rock pinnacles, often with the half-forgotten ruins of a medieval castle perched precariously above the treetops.

In the Central and Southern Vosges the forests have their own surprises. The enigmatic ruins of the Mur Païen and the nearby convent of Mont Ste-Odile are shrouded in legend and mystery (Section 4). Footpaths lead through the age-old winegrowing towns and villages on the edge of the Alsace Plain and up through the trees to open summit pastures. There is so much to discover here – do you linger to savour the charm of old Alsace, with its cobbled lanes and half-timbered houses, or do you press on up to the windswept hilltops, where the view over the patchwork plain extends out to the distant Alps?

Further south the limestone of the Jura lends its own unique character to the landscape. Isolated lookout points give wide views over the seemingly endless blanket of trees below. Elsewhere, rivers have cut down through the limestone to produce impressive gorge scenery, with narrow defiles leading between rocky crags. Joux Castle, surely one of the most stunningly sited strongholds in all of France, stands guard over one such narrow rocky cleft (Section 10). The rivers can form gentle backwaters where trout linger in shaded pools, or they can have more dramatic moods – at Saut du Doubs the thunder of rushing water can be heard long before the waterfall comes into sight (Section 9).