Boréon -> Madone de la Fenestre – Chamois sounds so charming
9. June 2025
11,6 km
940 m up
560 m down
5:40 hrs.
said Mapy.
Despite feeling tired the day before, I felt in good spirits and eager to hike again in the morning, so I set off quite early. It turned out to be a fantastic day in the mountains! First, though, I continued along all the natural disasters.
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Then the road ended, and cows and a dog dominated the route. I waited a bit, and the dog came—and then left again. The cows didn’t really leave. And then I set off anyway.
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The path climbed, not so steeply at first, and it was full of shady trees, but these became fewer the higher I climbed. The day before, I was almost alone, but this stretch was the opposite. It was the opposite, and the climb was very popular, with tons of people overtaking me. It was just about manageable; I wasn’t (yet) annoyed by them. I took my time.
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Here the signposts also had timings:
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And then the vegetation thinned out considerably. The day’s destination for many was Lake Trécolpas. I wanted to have lunch there and couldn’t walk too fast, otherwise lunch would have been very early. Or I would have sat around and waited for it to be time to eat or for hunger to set in. But the way I was going, it was suiting well.
On the way up, I spotted a chamois and was absolutely thrilled.
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At the lake there were ibexes or something that came quite close to the people and they were also very excited.
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Later, I encountered more and more chamois and ibexes and other mountain animals, and I couldn’t get used to how close I got to them! Chamois is also the french word—how lovely. Why is that so in the Mercantour? But first, let’s check out the lake and have a lunch break:
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I could have stayed forever. But there was still a pass to cross where you could see snow, and a few clouds were also gathering. The landscape became increasingly rocky and grander. Here, the trail had thinned out considerably, as most people simply went back down.
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And there it was: the pass! Without prayer flags, but with a view and Jakub. I noticed him because he was carrying a very large backpack with an ice axe. I spoke to him: he spoke English! Yay!
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I didn’t take a picture of Jakub, but we chatted a bit. He’s French-Polish or something and works as a journalist from Warsaw for a major French newspaper. And he prefers climbing peaks and enjoys the challenge. He brought his ice axe and other gear with him for that.
He also told me about an interesting, bad experience. The huts here are also affiliated with the Alpine Club, and we both thought that even if they were full, they weren’t allowed to turn you away, but would let you sleep on the bench in the dining room or something. But that wasn’t the case at his previous hut. He didn’t make a reservation, it was full, it was too late, and he was too tired for the valley—and they turned him away! No chance! He had to go to an emergency shelter, where he was dry and a musty sleeping bag could have provided him with some warmth, and there were also non-perishable food supplies, but it wasn’t pleasant.
Then we both lamented and remembered the good times when you could really roam freely and flexibly through the mountains without advance reservations.
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The mountain scenery here was quite impressive, especially considering the proximity to the Mediterranean.
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And then I reached Madone de la Fenestre! What a crazy place, I’ve never seen anything like it! But since there are already so many pictures here and not as many were taken the next day, I’ll postpone the description of the place to the next blog post 🙂
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Just a quick note: the hut had just opened, the owners were very nice (they always spoke a bit of English, by the way), an American arrived very late (otherwise, everyone was French), and the food was once again very plentiful. There was no shower or hot water, though. But I don’t mind that.
More on Madone de la Fenestre in the next blog post—and how it all continued!