A walk up to Panex, Switzerland, 2014

Dwight Peck's personal website

Neighbors of Ollon

Panex, Switzerland, 2014

Ollon, Switzerland. We've just moved in, and it's time to get out and scope out the neighborhood.

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

A walk up to Panex, 21 March 2014

We have recollections of passing through Panex on running routes back in the day, so we're scurrying up out of Ollon (480m) to pay the place a visit.

Escaping the Rhône valley fog, or whatever it is

It's more or less straight up for a while.

The little hamlet of Plan-d'Essert (655m), crossing the road up the hill. We're relying entirely upon a Swiss topographical map of the region upon which, in 1988, we wrote in the route we used to take through here on running routes. The map is dated 1980.

And this looks like the path farther upward.

But it's not.

After 20 mintues thrashing through brambles, we discover our mistake. We'll send off for a new map.

We all have days like this.

The path above Crêt-à-Tavez, about 780m, looking down into the ravine of Le Bondet

Approaching Panex, at about 900m

The path tops out at the village school (920m). "Panex", according to R-H Bugnon, comes from an old French word for a place suitable for cultivating cereal crops (the plain of the Rhône below, before it was channeled, was a vast marsh unsuitable for sensible farming).

The place is attested in the records of the abbey of St-Maurice from 1232. From 1554 onward the site was developed with water works to exploit the salt content of the wells, part of the famous salt industry of Bex and particularly a source for the saline of Aigle, and the 7km conduit constructed in 1801 survives in the present "Sentier du Sel" walking path.