Top 12 Natural Monuments around Mont-Saxonnex

Very nice hike. It was quite crowded today. Contrary to what’s written in the description, I didn’t see any particularly risky passages

As you climb the challenging trail to the top of Tête du Danay, you’ll be rewarded with breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Once you reach the top, you’ll come across the iconic Croix du Danay, an imposing cross that marks the highest point in the region. From this vantage point, you can admire the picturesque villages, winding rivers and lush forests that characterize the landscape.

A majestic summit resembling a pyramid from the Cenise side, the Jallouvre - or Jalouvre - is a mythical summit whose ascent, although not difficult compared to its neighbor Pointe Blanche overhanging it by 30m, remains in the memory like that of a almost epic adventure between grueling scree (on both sides), the mythical Col du Razoir (the aptly named) and the Passage de la Cravate which, in the end, poses no more problem than that when the residual snowfields have disappeared, unless that we are subject to vertigo. In summary, one of the most beautiful hikes in the area in my opinion, for which you still need to be sure-footed and in good shape, but which can be tamed quite easily. Do not miss !

Incredible nature, the river has carved out a passage

Lake Bénit is located at an altitude of 1,452 meters, on the northern slope (ubac) of the Bargy chain, in the Bornes1 massif. It is dominated to the south by the limestone wall of the Bargy chain from where the scree of the Col d'Encrenaz cirque spills out and delimits the south-west shore of the lake. The northwest bank corresponds to the slope of the old glacial basin while the east bank opens onto the valley of the Lac Bénit stream. In 1988, Father Arsène Bourgeaux, ethnographer, in a publication dedicated to the parish, indicated that the lake, “for the inhabitants of the Mont is considered as a sort of founding place where the identity of a population originates” 7. The lake was the subject of processions by the populations of Marnaz and Mont-Saxonnex, on Saint Claude's Day, in order to protect the villages from flooding. The lake benefited from developments in the early 1960s, notably with the raising of the lake level, which made it possible to double its surface area7. The inauguration took place on July 11, 19657. A mass was improvised by priest Claude Scherantz. Lake Bénit is the subject of many legends. One of them relates that the fairies came to bathe there and were at the origin of the production of butter and tomme in the town. A second legend says that an episcopal ring is found in the lake9. Following a deadly avalanche, the bishop of the diocese is said to have gone “in a grand procession” to bless the lake and to have thrown “his episcopal ring into the waves asking heaven that such a catastrophe never happens again”9. Another version says that the object was so heavy that it fell into the lake at the time of the blessing9. According to this legend, an avalanche emptied the lake and flooded Marnaz below4. Finally Alphonse Favre (en) reports that “this lake is due to a collapse in which a fir forest disappeared. As for the time, it can only be established in a very doubtful manner, by the fact that an old man from the village of Brezon assured, around 1845, that this event had happened in his father's youth. »1

Great view from there

The Gorges du Giffre, at the Pont du Diable, represent a very aesthetic canyon, when the sun is in the axis, it gives extraordinary lights. These mythical gorges are steeped with a rather horizontal profile. The geological formation of the Gorges du Giffre is formed by a lock, called a glacial lock. On the bottom of the valley, the folds of the limestone layers are oriented perpendicular to the axis of the valley. During the Quaternary era, these limestones offered greater resistance to the erosion of the glacier. He was only able to hollow out the layers occasionally. The pots were dug afterwards, by repeated movements of water and pebbles

Great summit, which is also worthwhile because of the ascent via the "razor blade" and the "tie"