Valais

[auntieannie]

I have long looked for worthy stories to post about where I come from.

Hopefully the attached will be of interest to you!

First, I come from canton Valais in Switzerland.

One of the very intersting features is what we call "bisse", a man-made waterway. These were created over hundred years ago, when people were trying to share water, to guide it from where it was abundant to where it was scarce. Nowadays, these still have their value for mountain farmers and they have also found a revival with people walking along them. The bisse du Ro (featured) , near Crans-Montana is definitely NOT for the faint-hearted.

[auntieannie]

More of the same...

[auntieannie]

some general advertisement for the region sorry for the french commentary and not optimal quality of image:

[Deleted]

I basically know where the Valais is, and in fact I pass through it just about every year, but I am always hazy about what the borders are, since it is the canton "that doesn't even know which language it is speaking."

So I looked up a map of it for reference.



Last year, I crossed the Grand Saint Bernard Pass instead of going through the tunnel. If I had known that they were completely redoing the road on the Italian side, I would have gone through the tunnel! What a nightmare that was, driving down through gravel and dust.

I spent a night with my mother in Sion a couple of years ago -- always on the lookout for pleasant roadtrips to take her on. Everything must be visible through a car window because there is no walking around with her.

And strangely enough, I have been to Saas Fee but not to Zermatt.

[happytraveller]

There are several cantons that don't know what language they are speaking ;D

[bixaorellana]

Oh, thank you for this Annie! The bisses seem so natural from the scary bridge aspect. What do they look like close-up? The sound of the water in the 2nd video is lovely.

[auntieannie]

K, Sion isn't the right place when one cannot walk. The old town is really lovely, but not exactly vehicle-friendly.

Bixabella, the bisses are all different. Some run along high meadows, carved in wood, earth or stone. some are encased in metal. They are usually a mix of all these.

The sound of the water is one of the good things. it is refreshing just to hear the water, when the temperature reaches 40C.

[auntieannie]

This shows the picturesque village of Grimentz in Anniviers valley.

In the old days, such hamlets were only lived in during the summer months. Winter months spent in what have become the towns of the canton. People would charge all their belongings on donkeys (the younger children sitting on top)and walk beside the beasts along footpaths... twice a year. My grandpa got fined when he drove up and down these donkey ways with his car, to visit cattle owners...

Nowadays, the chalets are habitable all year long for touristic purposes.

[auntieannie]

Anniviers valley again: Local cows are feisty beasts and fight between each other to find their place in the "pack" (is there a better word for the cattle world?) this is observed everytime they get the cows out for the summer and everytime there is a new cow about.

Unfortunately, some venal people are making this a spectacle and put the cows in fight situation on purpose.

[auntieannie]

I am trying to show you the current "face" of where I come from.

In this video, they are flying a small aircraft above Martigny and region. Martigny sits at the "elbow" of the rhone river. From there, you can take a "toytrain" to Chamonix, France or follow Kerouac across the Grand St Bernard into Italy (Aosta region). turn the sound to minimum.

[auntieannie]

I could have answered your geographical question, Kerouac, by mentioning Valais is where the Rhone river is born. The flew gave the area its life. it stretches from the Gotthard region, where the Rhone (to France and the Mediterranean sea), Rhine(border of today's France and Germany, into the Netherlands and finishes in the North Sea), Po (across Italy into the Adriatic Sea) and Danube (across Austria and other countries into the Black Sea) rivers to the Leman Lake.

[bazfaz]

We have a friend ateach52 we go to stay with in the Valais each August. She and her husband have taken a chalet near Trois Torrents (on the way to Champery). However this year we'll be going to where they live, near Neuchatel. I think that is pretty beautiful too.

[auntieannie]

I like the Neuchatel area too, Baz! And Troistorrents is in Valais... just about... ;-) The real Valais starts at St Maurice, where the opening between the Vaud/Bern Alps and the Valaisan/French Alps is at its narrowest.

[spindrift]

For many years I travelled with my family by train from Geneva to Brig then changed onto the little train going up to Zermatt. We'd ski there for a couple of week taking an apartment in a chalet next to our Swiss friends.

Zermatt is a wonderful village with few vehicles apart from the ambulance which is frequently on call to take the wounded to the bigger hospital at Brig!

Above Zermatt is the Matterhorn. We used to take the cable car up to the Kleine Matterhorn and ski down to Valtournanches for lunch in Italy! What a wonderful day out this is.

Zermatt in summer is just as pretty as Zermatt in winter.

[happytraveller]

Baz, Neuchâtel is really nice, particularly in summer, the lake, the cafes... lovely !

Annie, your posts made me want to go to visit our friends in the Valais again

[auntieannie]

go on... it's just on the other side of that mountain, Happy! ..

btw, Happy and Spindrift: what shall I try to describe from Valais to present it to our colleagues on Anyport?

Or if any reader wants to know something... ask away!

[spindrift]

Annie: I only really know about Zermatt and it's surrounding mountains and mountain passes...and the rail journey up there. You could tell them about the 'Mountainy Men' who are carved in wood ....I don't know anything definite about them...I was told it was a tradition in the village to carve them and do they sell them? or are they guardians? I do know about the 3 main ski areas in Zermatt and restaurants....

[happytraveller]

Oh you could tell something about the wine growing in the valais

[bixaorellana]

Annie, did you say where you come from in the canton?

Also, I'm intrigued by those cows. They seem to be a very distinct race of beasties. Are they very old, and not hybrids?

[spindrift]

I only know about wine drinking in the Valais ;D

[happytraveller]

May 13, 2009 21:55:11 GMT spindrift said:

I only know about wine drinking in the Valais ;D

Ha ! Me too !

[auntieannie]

Spindrift, do you mean the Tschagatta of the Lotschental that I posted in the Carnival thread?

Bixa, no.. I didn't say where I come from in Valais. I'd rather not. I am not sure about the cows. My understanding is that they are a very old race.

Off to find more footage!

[auntieannie]

wiki for bixa:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herens

Wine, poetry and local dialect...

[auntieannie]

A short drive in the vineyards


and an electric bike ride to Derborence

[spindrift]

Annie - I don't know what they're called. I've only seen them in Zermatt village.

[bixaorellana]

Thank you for the link about the cows, Annie -- really different and interesting!

And the singing on the same reply is beautiful.

[auntieannie]

In Valais, there is a museum dedicated to vineyard and wine. Its particularity is to be one museum in two different building in two different towns.

Part of it is within the "Chateau de Villa" in Sierre and the other within the "Maison Zumofen" in Salgesch/Salquenen.

[auntieannie]

The Romans enjoyed our natural hot water sources. In Loeche-les-Bains/Leukerbad baths, the water actually has to be cooled a bit before it is safe to waddle in it (too hot for much activity, although there are some cooler pools). I understand they use the hot water to heat the buildings.

[auntieannie]

Choral song in the german-speaking part of Valais/Wallis

[auntieannie]

Raclette!