Le Parmelan near Dingy-St-Clair

<Photo in Le Parmelan above Dingy-St-Clair, leading to Le Plateau des Glières in the French Alps>

Happy New Year! Sorry it’s been a while. I’m now (hopefully!) back to regular posting. Pictured is a photo I took while I was driving from Annecy back to Saint Jean de Sixt yesterday. The big rock is Le Parmelan, and way, way down below, out of the photo, is the village of Dingy-St-Clair. The name sounds terrible in English – a dingy saint, but in reality it’s just a little old village without a pub that some might say is a bit dingy. Not me, no. I would never say that. No, because in French, Dingy-St-Clair is pronounced more like ‘dahhnshee-sane-clair’.

Behind La Parmelan is le Plateau des Glières. The plateau is one of the places where the local Resistance movement fought against the Vichy government’s partnership with the Nazi regime, which meant they battled against French authorities such as the Milice as well as German soldiers. They lost in rather unfortunate circumstances, and seeing just how high Le Parmelan rises, it must have been hard work to fight at that altitude, not to mention getting there in the first place.

Seeing the sun on the snow-topped rock of Le Parmelan is always a beautiful sight, and I can’t drive past without thinking how lucky the locals here are to grow up with such amazing views. But perhaps they don’t feel all that lucky, as the world standard of views has been set so high now. As an ‘etranger‘ (non-local), I smile every time I drive by.

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About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.