Category: MinionVan

  • First Time Hiking in France: A Short Van Trip Adventure

    First Time Hiking in France: A Short Van Trip Adventure

    We went with our MinionVan for a short but sweet trip to the border of France. It was actually a boys’ trip, but I decided to come along as well. And I’m glad I did!

    Our first lunch stop in France already had beautiful views of larches changing the color of their needles.

    But before we went to France, we had another stop in Pontida, Italy. We went for a short bike ride, where we stumbled upon a funny barbecue in front of the church.

    Anyway, the biking was a bit too cross country for me, but fun enough. The trails we did are called Uccellaia 2 and Guendalina Basso.

    Let’s return to France. It was still raining the first day. We checked out some waterfalls in the area of La Grave. We also visited my favorite French shop, E.Leclerc in Briançon.

    The second day the boys did some canyoning, I hiked up to Lac Lauvitel. Lac means lake in French. Beautiful, easy hike – 10 km, 2 hours up, less than 1.5 hours down, 750 m height difference. This was my first proper hiking in France.

    On the way to the lake:

    The views of the lake:

    The next day we were exploring a different part of Le Parc national des Écrins. I went for a nice walk to Cascade de la Pisse, along the Le Veneon river. I did this while waiting for the boys to return.

    The next day, Rick and I went to Les Deux Alpes, Venosc. Since it was a school holiday in France, we were lucky that the trails and chairlifts were open. Also the ticket was super cheap. There was snow on the top and wet further down. Still worth it!

    The views were magical!

    I was in love with this part of the trail! Photo by Rick.

    For the last day I had my morning coffee with the nicest views.

    After that I went for a stroll around La Grave. It was out of season, the town was very quite. All the locals were looking at me funny. The town is quaint though.

    This was it for our short, but magical French adventure!

  • 4 Days of Thrills: Canyoning and Mountain Biking in Italy

    4 Days of Thrills: Canyoning and Mountain Biking in Italy

    Time for a MinionVan trip. Rick planned for us 2 days of canyoning and 2 days of MTB. After the summer season we were not really fit, honestly. So, we went for 2 days of shuttling with Flow School.

    First day was canyoning day – Prialunga (V3A3IV). We spent 4 hours, car to car. Nice flow, awesome views, beautiful rappels.

    After finishing the canyon, we returned to Pietra Ligure for a gelato and the beach.

    Next day – shuttles! We did Toboga, Kill Bill 1, Madonna della Guardia, Val Nava, La Rete, DH Borgani, Ca Bianca, DH Donne, Briga Destra and Briga Sinistra. In the afternoon I managed to have a small crash, because I was tired. But it was fun.

    Barbaira (V2A3II) was the canyon of the next day. I liked this one very much! It took us less than 3.5 hours, car to car.

    First we had to walk through an old town to get to the start of the canyon.

    And it started with the most beautiful bridge. I love bridges, so I might be biased.

    Photo by Rick

    Although there was some walking in the canyon, I did not mind. It had beautiful pools and some narrower sections. I only missed some verticalness of the rappels.

    After a nice day out, we returned to Pietra Ligure and enjoyed a nice dinner at Machettö.

    The next day we had the backcountry shuttle day, which I liked a lot more. We did Ca du Campo, Euforia, Super Canaletta, Tobogazzo, Rientro, Roller Coaster into Cacciatore.

    This is how our 4-day trip to Italy finished and we drove home. Bella Italia, grazie!