Lac d'Arvouin, first day of retirement

The route

Crocuses and snowfields

The meadows facing the Dents du Midi are covered in crocuses, yet a few hundred metres higher the snow still holds. We cross the snowfields laughing, under sharply drawn clouds.

Lac d'Arvouin has barely thawed, still ringed with white. On the way back, the first gentians and a rescue helicopter circling the rocks remind us that the mountains are the mountains, even on a day of celebration.