Walking on Lac de Joux

On Saturday we decided to head off into the Jura to check out Lac de Joux, which freezes over in Winter. It took longer than expected to get there, after my GPS decided it the most direct route was the most appropriate, even though it was under deep snow and impassable (although I did give it a good shot before deciding the better of it).

I didn't have all that high expectations, as I'd seen pictures of frozen lakes before that just looked like a flat area with snow on it, but we were pleasantly surprised that, while there was patches of snow, the lake was largely bare ice.

Originally the plan was to hire some ice skates and go skating, but we weren't quite organised enough to locate the rental place and settled for a walk along the surface of the lake.

This was impressive enough though, since it is a big lake and was obviously frozen to quite a significant depth; we saw lots of fracture points where the ice had buckled or subsided and you could really see just how deep the ice was.

We walked a fair way along the lake, checking out what other people were doing, such as ice skating, riding on recumbent bikes (three wheels perfect for ice), dragging along a toboggan, walking their dog, or having a small party. There was even a group of Swans swimming around in a small hole of unfrozen lake, looking very cold and bored.

We really enjoyed our time on Lac de Joux and no doubt we'll return, next time a little more organised, to spend a bit more time on the Lake before spring comes and turns it back to water.