The father of the German family next door walked past our patio singing “Heidi, Heidi” at the top of his voice. It could have been the theme tune of a forgotten European TV serial or else, like us, he could have simply have been inspired by the surroundings.
For Plans, on the outskirts of the French alpine town of Le Grand-Bornand in the Massif des Aravis, lives, breathes and exudes Heidi from every viewpoint. Heidi, in case you’ve forgotten, is the novel by Johanna Spyri about the orphan girl brought up by her grandfather amid the pastures and mountains of Switzerland. Goats and goatherds feature strongly.
Match the views but change the country and you’ve got Le Grand-Bornand.
We were staying in Les Fermes de Pierre et Anna, a 300-year-old timber farmhouse renovated to take guests on a bed and breakfast basis. We’d picked up a car at Geneva airport and driven the 41 miles (66km) to the farm. It’s a pleasant enough journey, but there are enough hairpin bends to keep you fully occupied.
Outside our bedroom window the golf course gave way to wooded foothills and - in the distance - larger peaks that even in August were streaked with snow. To our left was an ancient barn, a gravel road and tiny, but perfectly formed chapel.
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Beyond were some Alpine cows, who, like most of the bovine population of the valley, had large bells slung around their neck. A mile or so up the road there was a gathering of goats. Heidi would have been thrilled.
Yet people don’t go to Le Grand-Bornand and the surrounding Haute Savoie region simply to enjoy the view. Obviously in the winter, you’d be whizzing around on skis or hurtling over the horizon in a toboggan. And you can’t take it easy in the summer either. If Heidi was around, she wouldn’t be staring at goats - no, she’d walking, climbing, cycling, flying, galloping – and in the words of the local tourist office “thrilling all her senses”.
Spurred on by my wife and son, and with strict instructions from my editor to sample a bit of action, I opted to thrill my senses by doing a spot of summer tobogganing or ‘luge d’?t?’. With my son I took the ski-lift to the top of the grassy slope at the neighbouring town of La Clusaz.
From the summit, two metal toboggan tracks snake down the valley, one for beginners and the other for the more experienced. Trembling - with what I hoped was excitement - I sat in my wheeled sledge. A single joystick was the only control. Pull it back to slow down, push it forward to speed up.
Once launched from the summit I took it carefully. Perhaps too carefully. Before I was a third of the way down, seasoned sledgers aged at least 7 were hurtling past me on the advanced tobogganists’ track. In perhaps the longest ascent of the day, I eventually made it to the bottom where my 13-year-old son, who’d set off seconds before me, had got bored with waiting and had wandered off to buy an ice cream.
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Happily, there was soon a chance to watch other people making a fool of themselves. Seasoned French television viewers will know that ‘Jeux San Frontières’, or as we used to know it, ‘It’s a Knockout’, is an inherent part of French culture. Lots of people get together, put on silly costumes and play silly games.
In Le Grand-Bornand, the car park was closed for evening, and hordes of visitors from the neighbouring towns of La Clusaz, St Jean de Sixt, Manigod and Thônes piled in to do battle. It may not have been important enough for the TV cameras, but that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm.
Men in large plastic sumo suits battled valiantly, other men tried to launch a custard pie while being held back by a large elastic band. Women tried to stay on a mechanical bucking bronco and usually fell off, shrieking, after a couple of minutes. As the night increased the cheers became longer and louder.
In the interests of proper reporting I should have stayed to see who won, but the effects of tartiflette - the rich potato and goats cheese dish that this area excels in - and the excellent Haut Savoie wine meant that I was tucked up in bed well before the end.
We rounded the week off with another burst of fresh air. The alpine ski lifts are used in the summer to take you into hiking country. We took the Rosay cabin lift from Le Grand-Bornand and got off at the top to admire the view down the valley.Cows mooed and rang their bells, le Grand-Bornand looked perfect in its impossibly green setting and a distant echo of Heidi hung in the air.
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NEED TO KNOW
John Clarke and his family were guests of Syndicat Intercommunal du Massif des Aravis and Les Fermes de Pierre et Anna . with car suppied by Europcar
Top Ten Summer Activities in the Massif de Aravis
1. Hiking: Guided route maps are available for everything from two-hour stroll around Le Grand-Bornand to a seven-hour “difficult” hikes around Sommet de l’Etale in Manigod.
2. Mountain biking: You can hire a mountain bikes and tackle up to 25 cross country or downhill routes.
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3. Climbing: From Le Grand-Bornand, it’s a short drive to Ècole de la Culaz au Chinaillon, one of the many prepared climbing area in the region. This one is ideal for children and beginners.
4. Woodland activity course: La Fôret des Dodes at le Grand-Bornand features monkey bridges, cable crossings, tree-top walks and more in a 2hr 30min adventure (1hr 30min for the childen’s course).
5. Summer ski-lift: The T?l?cabine de Rosay service from Le Grand-Bornand is open from 9.30 to 12.15, and 2pm to 5.15pm from June 17 to September 9.
6. Summer sledging: The luge d’?t? at La Clusaz is open from June 23 to September 3.
7. Para-gliding: Two-person “baptism” flights, initiation and pilot-training courses are all available in schools around the area www.aravis-concept.com and www.lespassagersduvent.com
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8. Sightseeing and shopping: The historic town of Annecy with its incomparable setting by the lake is only a short drive away. For those who don’t relish the drive there’s also a egular bus service from Le Grand-Bornand www.lac-annecy.com
9. Fishing: Permits are available for fishing in the Borne at Le Grand-Bornan - 25kms of mountain stream.
10. Golf: Le Rocher Blanc at Le Grand-Bornand is a compact 10-hole course open from May to the end of October.