Farms along the Combe des Amburnex

Dwight Peck's farm photos

Winter 2006-2007

First good signs of winter

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.

Farms along the Combe des Amburnex road

We're here on a quiet snowy day, 9 December 2006, at the top of the road from Bassins, Switzerland, that turns along the Combe des Amburnex towards the Col du Marchairuz.

We'll leave Dieter VW here for the afternoon, as we proceed along the road and get some wintry photos of the local farms for our series on the subject.

We're starting at the farm of La Bassine (1261m asl), on the lower left on the map below. This is in the commune of Bassins at the top of the Route des Montagne from that village.

From the southwest

The front along the southeast

The northeast end

Next, we proceed to our next destination.

Rionde Dessus

Rionde Dessus (1325m asl), about a kilometre and a half from La Bassine northeast along the road, on a little knoll uphill from the roadway.

Seen from the southeast

The cistern

And around the south end, another cistern

Rionde Dessus = Upper Rionde

The southeast side

And next, down across the road and up to Lower Rionde

Rionde Dessous

Rionde Dessous, the "lower" Rionde, is at 1314m above the road from Marchairuz to La Bassine -- Rionde Dessus, the "upper" Rionde, lies across the far side of that road to the northwest at 1325m, only marginally "upper".

That road on the left is the only other paved road over the mountain between the Bassins road and the Col du Marchairuz -- it comes up from the La Côte village of Le Vaud past the commune's farm, the Perroude du Vaud (1371m) along the front ridge of the Jura and, as here, drops down to the Bassine-Marchairuz through the Combe d'Amburnex.

Seen from the north-northeast

Most of the mountain farms in this region were built in the period 1750 to 1780 or so, nearly all in the same style and many by two brothers from Le Brassus.

Onward to the next stop, the Pré-aux-Veaux

Pré aux Veaux

The farm at Pré aux Veax at 1341m altitude in the first decent snowfall of the year, 9 December 2006. The mountains are invisible in the background.

In recent year, in addition to a working farm, there's been a popular summer restaurant montagnard here.

From the northeast

And from the northwest

The snow's coming down more vigorously

Part of the Parc Jurassien Vaudois movement, which has gathered strength since this photo was taken.

The participating communes that own the farms up here would like you to understand that they will not be responsible for any damages caused to your car or your person by their cows.

And now, we'll just go on back to where we started today, and see if the car's still there.

Trudging back along the road to La Bassine. It's been a nice day out in The Nature.

Dieter waited.

from SwitzerlandMobility (http://map.schweizmobil.ch/?lang=en)

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