Genghis Khan was here...

Jean and I returned to the Jura last Friday for some more cross-country skiing. We started very near from where we had lunch the week before. The vale were we started is called "Bellecombe", which translates into "Beautiful Dale", a very appropriate name. Jean had been here before and he knows that the inn at the end of the dale is a good place for lunch and not too far away. The thermometer reads -7 C when we start in bright sunshine. The snow is perfect and there is absolutely no wind and we make good progress. Today we are not alone, we greet other skiers from time to time and we get overtaken by "skaters" too. We reach the inn at the same time as a group of skiers and we hope that there is enough food. The inn is called la Guienette and run very efficiently by the owners François and Françoise. The "plat-du-jour" is ham from the bone and gratin, absolutely delicious for only € 11. It would be so nice to come back and stay here for a couple of days. There is a choice of five rooms and two dorms. The most exiting is that there is a real yurt a few hundred meters up the hill from the inn at a most beautiful spot. A yurt is the traditional dwelling used by the nomads of Mongolia and neighboring countries. It is basically a tent made by a wooden frame and covered by wood felt. This construction has not changed much since Genghis Khan. This yurt is really a large room of 35 square meters equipped with real mongolian furniture and a wood stove. The yurt sleeps up to four and costs € 110/night for two including half board in the inn. (www.massifdujura.com/laguienette)

The Restaurant at the End Of The Universe

It is a cold and misty morning, one of those days when you are tempted to stay in bed. Low clouds cover our area; we call this persisting condition "Stratus Quo". The phone rings at 9 am, it is my friend Jean. He asks me if I am interested in doing some cross-country skiing in the nearby Jura Mountains and get out of the fog. He picks me up an hour later and we drive up to our favorite nordic center "La Vattay" via the Faucille pass.
Unfortunately the center is in the clouds with zero visibility. I wish I had stayed in bed! Jean suggests going to the next range of the Jura where there is good skiing as well and hopefully better weather. So we drive down the hill and up again to a village called la Joux and lo and behold the sun is out when we get there. The tourist office provides us with maps and suggestions for an excellent place for lunch. We start our adventure on freshly made tracks with nobody around.
It is -5 degrees C, but we do not feel it. It is so beautiful, so peaceful and so quiet, only after one hour we meet a skier who is coming from the opposite direction. We are working up to a good appetite and ask him immediately about the restaurant which was recommended to us by the tourist office. He seems to know "le College", as it is called, very well and asks us if we have made a reservation as it is the only Inn around and therefore very popular. He adds "in any case it is not too far away and you cannot miss it, it is very close to the tracks and bon appetit". We are greatly encouraged and "make tracks" again. However it is all uphill, very beautiful but lonely with no soul nor house in sight. Are we ever getting there? Are we lost? After an hour we finally meet another person. Good news! "The inn is just over the hill".
Suddenly we see the place down from the tracks. However it looks very closed from the distance, but we are mistaken, the door is unlocked! La patronne welcomes and seats us, we are the only guests! It is so quiet here in January, she says, we almost closed the inn. It is a very cosy Jura Inn with an extensive menu and wine list. We choose the menu of the day which is very inviting with game. It uncludes a salad Jura style as an appetizer - Doe steak as a main - the chocolate tart is the speciality of the chef. It all goes down very well with a bottle of Trousseau, very nice light red wine from the Jura.We pay € 18.50 each all included for this feast. I highly recommend le College, les Molunes, Septmoncel 39310 tel +33 384 41 62 89. It is hard to leave this wonderful inn at the edge of our universe, but another 10 kms lies ahead of us and the wind is picking up and against us. We take a different track this time to return to La Joux. It is mostly downhill but against the wind and we were a getting rather exhausted. We are so glad to see the village. It is getting dark already when we finally get there, very tired but extremely satisfied.