SWISS TOURS & DAY TRIPS starting at LA FOULY or ORSIERES in SWITZERLAND

INFORMATION ABOUT LA FOULY - in SWITZERLAND

​​​

Please note that as far as I understand Orsières is not currently known as a holiday hot spot but perhaps more of an ideal start point or stop off on on your Swiss Tour if arriving from an International airport and heading into the mountains to walk in the mountains and stay in Alpine huts and refuges.

​

La Fouly is a picture postcard slice of rural alpine Switzerland, where cows and sheep roam the mountain sides and the sound of alpine cowbells is tuneful. 

 

La Fouly remains a natural and tranquil place which breathes natural beauty and peacefulness.

 

Even in high season, mountain terrain is so vast that thankfully land remains unexploited by the ski industry and so the land in summer is a walkers paradise, a botanist dream, a banquet for sheep, a 10 course taster menu of grass, green pastures and alpine plants for Swiss cows.

​

La Fouly is a small place so booking in advance is essential.  It is a popular stopping place on the Tour Mont Blanc Trekking route, Route 6-Tour des Cols Alpins, and Tour St Bernard, so group bookings fill available accommodation well in advance.  Planning a solo visit here is best done a few seasons ahead of time if going solo.

​

Beautiful little La Fouly does have a fantastic large campsite beneath Glaciers Dolent and Anouva from where people visit alpine hut A'Nouva via a mountain path, it is by the alpine glacier ANouva and poeple stay overnight.  It is an alpine outing (with a big uphill factor).  You can explore La Fouly on foot, bicycle and use a car to get to places like Ars, Ferret, Champex, Liddes, Col St Bernard, Verbier. 

 

Several hotels, guest houses,1 supermarket, a little tourist information office assist the tourists in La Fouly although accommodation is often prebooked with trekking tour group, sometimes year / years in advance although this can be a gamble given landslide risk exists in all steep, rocky Alpine areas prone to rain and snow.. 

 

After Spring snow has melted sufficiently to cross mountains on foot instead of on skis, the Tour Mont Blanc clients arrive immediately.  It is a popular place for other trekkers to explore too, on the Tour St Bernard, on Tour des Combins, and there is peaceful mountain terrain and enough space outdoors for everyone to find solitude, harmony, nature, isolated streams. 

 

For these Tour the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) huts are a blessing in disguise, where food and drinks are served, bunk beds provided, running water comes from a tap, and normally a warm welcome for touring guests taking half board (dinner, bed and breakfast).  Most alpine huts serve lunches 12-2 and some places serve clients in the afternoon too. 

​

Trekking options

In addition to fabulous day trips and day hikes, trekkers enjoy these well known routes:

Tour St Bernard  

Tour Mont Blanc

Tour des Combins

Route 6 - Swiss Tour des Col Alpins

 

Hiring an IML to do outings and overnight trips is an option, just get in touch if you want a trek guide.

​​

From La Fouly, the valley heads up to Val Ferret and leads to Ferret village and the famous Col Grand Ferret which is the main opening to reach Italy on the Tour Mont Blanc is up on the right side after the fork  There is an alternative option via Col Petit Ferret to reach the Col Grand Ferret from behind Gite Lecher which is a fabulous option too.  In winter the avalanches in all these areas can sweep you away so these comments refer to summer conditions.

 

On the other side of the Val Ferret, towards Cols St Grand Bernard, are 3 Lakes Fenetres, Tete Fenetre, Fenetre d'en haut and Fenetre de Ferret, Drone mountain, Col Chevaux, Col Bastillon, Dragon lake as well as the Col du Nevé de la Rousse, Basset and Combe de L'A where rare alpine flowers shelter from human beings and hope not to be trodden on after the snows melt, alpine flowers flourish here when the sunshine reappears during the months of June, July, August and September before winter snows shield and insulate them from the cold temperatures once again.

​

The village of La Fouly is geographically limited to terrain within a valley where avalanches occur, and wipe out life.  People here live with avalanche risk, there are areas where there is no building or human life of any kind for much of the year.  In other areas further down the valley people live more safely with less avalanche risk in winter although landslides are an ever present concern. During the autumn, rains can increase the risk, especially after a period of drought. So here the land remain empty for the joy of sheep and cows, shepherds and tourists visiting in the summer as there are simply no houses or massive infrastructure and it retains a natural appearance due to its’ relative remoteness, geology, geographic position. 

​​

There is one mini ski lift that serves the population of La Fouly in winter and summer and a couple of other small chair lifts to serve people in Champex. 

​

Villages and towns like Champex, Liddes, and Vebier are perhaps more well known destinations with more hotels nowadays than Orsieres or Bourg St Pierre yet alpine mountain refuges open nearby in high season to accommodate tourists, for example the Swiss huts in Valsorey Valley called Valsorey refuge and Mont Velan Refuge are great places to visit and explore inbetween the Swiss mountains in a fabulously beautiful valley.

 

It is a very attractive and picturesque place and the further up you walk the more enjoyable it is.  Try sentier des bergers for example which is the shepherds path trek which is heavenly.

​

As the tranquil Camping des Glaciers sits beneath the A Nouva & Dolent glaciers, being positioned behind the Mont Blanc Massif mountains, it does experience some storms and rock and glacier debris on occasion. 

 

Mont Vélan is accessed on foot from Bourg St Pierre in Valsorey Valley and Mont Velan hut is in a heavenly position. 

​

In winter, the geographic location means that when La Fouly is under snow there is a beautiful winter ski season for ski tourers going out on foot which is appealing to many exploring the mountains in winter, it is not big like Verbier or Chamonix and comparatively remote, it is unlike other large ski resorts in Switzerland as it is tiny, other towns have catered for tourists and visitor for years on end and there are many ski lifts and hotels accommodating large numbers of clients, travellers, tourists which has been the case for over 100-150 years but La Fouly retains the charm of ancient mountain chalets with agricultural needs and a certain alpine logic which is evident in the layout of the valley to avoid death by avalanche and landslide, people and animals are in places which are sheltered to protect the alpine herds.  It seems it was always like this since the earliest residents settled here to enjoy beautiful summer pastures and make a life for themselves amid the mountains, some houses were destroyed in the 1950s avalanche and the snow dictates who lives where unless you are unwise. 

 

Even these days resident brave the winter season that falls on La Fouly not knowing what the winter will bring, so is the weather here, it is positioned close behind the Mont Blanc mountains and it is tucked in deep into the mountains on the Swiss side, which is an ideal position for receiving large amounts of snow, alpine incoming storms, thunder and lightening and rain even in summer.  Come prepared with water proof clothing just in case. 

​

When the sun shines the impact on the flowers that have appeared in Spring is beautiful, when the snow has melted is extraordinary, they flourish, and the rare specimens can be visited very carefully at higher altitudes in the most remote locations, ordinary lower pastures and alpine meadows host spring and summer arrivals of alpine flowers in an enormous variety of colours, shapes and sizes.  If there was a contest for Swiss Alpine meadows La Fouly would be credited at some level for sure, perhaps even the winner.