Mont
Blanc, on the southern side of Lake Geneva -- at 4800 meters -- LOOMS over the lake.
Crêt
de la Neuve, on the northern side of Lake Geneva -- at 1494 meters -- PEEKS over the lake.
Crêt
de la Neuve pops up like a treeless zit on the Jura ridgeline halfway along
the Chemin des Crêtes transjurassien hiking path between the Col du Marchairuz
and the Col de la Givrine. A paved farm road leads up from the village of Longirod,
past the farm of Petit Prés de Rolle on the Swiss side of the ridge and dead-ends at the farm of La Neuve facing over
towards France. Viewed on 23 December 2001.
The eviscerated
flag of the Swiss Confederation battered by exactly a year's relentless winds
across the Jura -- it was whole on Christmas Eve 2000, 364 days earlier. Bits
of red fabric can be found among all the cliffs that form a rampart along the
southeastern side of the entire ridge.
The
observation circle in great late-summer weather, 9 September 2006
The
majestic Christian Cross, stuck up there in 1981 to signify . . . well, to signify
Christians, I suppose.
But
you don't have to be a Christian to find a celebratory cross on a worthy little
summit a beautiful sight. Just a spare and delicate touch of humanity in an otherwise
fairly natural scene.
One
thing the Christian cross has got! -- simplicity. And symmetry. Two things the Christian cross has got! -- simplicity and symmetry. And aspiration,
reaching always upward! Three things the Christian
cross . . . . .
Crêt
de la Neuve, 9 September 2006, looking out over Lake Geneva. The aspiring cross
reaching upwards as ever, but sort of rotting out around the base. As with much
of Christianity, a good coat of paint would work wonders.
A cute
little observation deck, with panorama summit-finder lithography, built in 1993
-- today, however, the summits on the horizon are better seen on the lithographs
than on the horizon.
This
wide panorama of the horizon was installed
on 12 September 1993 by the Association for the Interests of Longirod (the village
just 600 vertical metres down the hill), with the financial support of just about
everybody else. It's a work of art. The block of wood is there so that the little
guys can admire it as well.
The
observation deck and the summit behind it, 9 September 2006.
May
2005
Roundabout
Christmas 2001, the perhaps-nondenominational cross with a light snow cover.
On 23
December 2001, Prof. J. J. Pirri stands proudly in the observation ring, with
the summit cross peeking over his shoulder from behind, and recites unrelated
verses from his first edition of Mary Howitt's Ballads and Poems (1823).
Never
a fan of Mary Howitt, and especially not of her Ballads and Poems (1823),
the narrator wanders away from the summit marker, munching things and awaiting
surcease of ballads.
With
the Christmassy weather darkening, it's time to stow both ballads and poems into
rucksacks and vacate the area speedily. The view looks from the Crêt de
la Neuve along the Chemin des Crêtes on the ridgeline in the direction of
the Col de la Givrine and the village of St Cergue.
The
Crêt de la Neuve, 24 March 2002, sans snow on the south-facing side.
One
amongst many reasons why people fall in love with the Swiss Jura.
Christmas
Eve 2000, Marlowe Peck and the Old Dad at the observation ring on Crêt de
la Neuve.
Dwight Peck's personal website
Feedback
and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, 
.
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 25 June 2002, revised 10 July 2008, 8 January 2014.
