France the Alps 7th, 8th April, a nothing day and then a trip to the locked churches

On the Tuesday Alan went cycling all day with Derek. The weather had warmed up and although the ski slopes were kept open using snow cannons the lower levels were warm, into the mid 20's. I had taken some dawn shots of Mont Blanc but did very little else with the day. Hettie and I went on a walk but nothing photographically satisfying came of it.



The next day we went down to Bourg-St-Maurice to stock up and also buy some shorts as I had only brought cold weather clothing. There is a pretty walk from Bourg but it was shut as it was being used by the military for a firing range! So we decided to do a tour of small places we had not been to before, starting with a little village called Vulmix in the hills south west of Bourg. The church is called St Grat and is supposed to be interesting but unfortunately it was shut when we got there. We are very fortunate in the UK that most of the churches are kept open if you want to visit. I took some shots here in infrared as well.








Looking for further diversion we drove a little further to a tiny place called Les Chapelles and walked along the ridge to it's namesake, La Chapelle du Mont Carmel. The smallest chapel you could imagine, which was naturally shut. No religion in France on a Wednesday! 








Peering through the church door we could make out a patch of light that had swept through the stained glass window and fallen on a picture of Jesus.


We walked through the fields back to the car admiring the mountain views lit with a clear blue sky.




Our last visit of the day was to a church the other side of the valley road, which we had visited before, St Michel, in Landry on the start of the climb up in to the Vanoise. This was naturally locked tight, and my attempted shot through a crack in the door was not quite as straightforward as before.























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