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

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Landscape

In the Northern Vosges the low, rounded hills are mostly formed from eroded sandstone, but in places where it is more resistant to erosion, prominent rocky outcrops remain. These isolated high points make obvious defensive sites, and the sandstone castles built on them can look like extensions of the rock itself. Further south in the Vosges this layer of sandstone has been eroded away completely to reveal gneiss and granite, harder rock which makes up the higher land, the Ballons des Vosges (Sections 5 to 7), with massive, flat-topped summits and ridges. The east face of the range, which follows the fault line of the Rhine Valley, is steeper than the west and in places forms a line of impressive cliffs. Glaciation has left its mark on these hills. Valleys were widened in some places to form massive, bowl-shaped cirques which are now the sites of glacial lakes. A series of such lakes, including Lac Blanc and Lac Noir, lies just below the cliffs.

Above the forest, the tops of the hills are open pasture. The very highest pastures are naturally clear of trees as a result of exposure, but others have traditionally been kept clear by grazing. Below the forest, the lower slopes to the south and east are clothed in vineyards. Winemaking in Alsace dates back many centuries, and has given rise to a whole string of inviting little villages in the valleys.