Sunset at the Mont Rond

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Mont rond

At first everything looked quite gloomy. One could see neither the Col de la Faucile nor the Mont Rond from Sauverny, because they were hidden in a mass of soft white clouds. Although Sunday was very nice autumn day with fresh fragrant and gentle sun, general visibility was not good, since the air was quite misty. Since the way to the mountain pass is a very nice drive through the picturesque colorful autumn forests of Le Jura, and the path to the top is then rather pleasant hike, just properly long to be slightly demanding and not yet long enough to be exhaustive, just right to make a nice walk after a lazy day, the gloomy setup was no reason for giving up.

And it was worth of it. As I wrote, just the ride to the pass was a nice experience on its own. The N5 road winds and twists in tight curves on the slopes of massive of the Jura, hidden under the tree tops of old beeches, reveling in all golden colors of autumn. Shades of yellow, red, orange, and brown create a mystic tunnel filled by sparse warm colored sunlight and occasionally broken by patches of blue sky and astonishing views of the Lac Leman valley below.

This time the weather decided to show a nice side to us. While we were driving under the cover of trees, clouds on the peak melted, leaving plain blue sky with few soft and chiffon clouds. First few steps of the hike showed us very nice view of the French side of Jura mountains coated in lovely autumn coat, bathing in the warm yellowish-golden evening sun and disappearing in the mist on the horizon. We took the direct path to the top using blue ski slope. Grass was still nice and rich green toned to yellow by evening sunlight, contrasting with dark blue sky and colorful pastel forests on the sides. Long evening shadows cast by the sun created dreamy patterns on the grass making everything feel more plastic and fairy. Mild wind calmly played with crunches of leaves on the ground. If leaves settled for a while, everything was silent. It was a great pleasure to climb to the top. As one climbed, colorful beeches were replaced by decent dark green pines.

Me on the cable car pole

View from the top was marvelous; valley was already peacefully sleeping in the patches of mist, and clouds moved slowly on the carmine blue sky. Mountains of Jura were calmly sitting in the veil knitted from purple-orange fog and disappearing in the distance.

The good part was that workers building a new cable car to the top, left their work half done, leaving a tall mast standing lonely just under the top of the mountain, with the ladder stretching all the way to the ground. There could not be a better place to go. Seated almost 20 meters above ground, above the tops of all pines, above the grass, with nothing obscuring the view, one could see a sun partially hiding its round nakedness by few velvet veils of thin clouds. Whole peak was now bathing in a fiery golden-orange light. Everything was silent. Sun slowly descended into the clouds hiding more and more of itself in the shirt from clouds, painting abstract figures in gold all over the deep orange sky. It took just a few moments before sun disappeared completely, leaving whole sky on fire.

At this moment one had a time to notice the tides of brume creeping from the valley. Whole lake valley was now hidden in a soft white mist which was rising to the peaks of Jura creating a foamy ocean. While one looked like mountains slowly disappearing under the cover of white mass, sun appeared again under the clouds, now in costume red like the petals of rose. This is the kind of red one cannot really imagine deep and rich red like roses in bloom, yet colorful and bright like a phoenix in the night. Horizon now looked like if the sun spilled its blood all over it on its slow way down.

And just as the sun disappeared, first patches of night fog made it to the Mont Rond and started to pour in packs over the peak. One could see how they are jumping from the opposite side of mountain, leaping from the peak, and then slowly landing on the slopes in front of us. Soon the whole peak was in a creamy soft evening dress made of white silk with purple ribbons slowly disappearing in the black sky.

This was it - sunset over Le Jura, one of the most spectacular and colorful sunsets I have ever seen. Pictures deeply suffer from handicap of digital cameras - limited color range. The sun is not even close to the tone of dark purple red it had in real. It was simply unbelievable, beyond the power of words or pictures.

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