Travel
Valais and its Valleys
[Until further notice we propose in this column to publish articles and notes which may help our readers in their plans for travel at home and abroad. They will be written by members of the SPECTATOR'S staff, or correspondents who have visited the places described.]
Nov without reason the canton of Valais claims to be the heart of Switzerland. Nevertheless, though parts of it are very well known, the majority of its beauty spots have never been heard of by tourists, who pass them by in the train or avoid them for places more crowded and no more lovely. Sion, its capital, standing on two castle-crowned hills and with a thrilling mediaeval history, is an example. Who has ever stayed at Sion ? Crowds flock in summer to Zermatt, and pay unduly high prices for accommodation, while Zermatt's beautiful twin valley of the Seas is hardly invaded at all.
Let us start with the two valleys lying to the east of the canton, not far from the Pass of Simplon. Get out at Stalden. the first stop, and let the busy, smoky, overcrowded little train puff away towards the Zermatt hotels without you, and you will find yourself in a valley where solitude is for hours often broken only by the roaring of the torrential Sasser Vista, where the flora is less preyed upon by tourists, and the villages are as hospitable as they well could be. Sass-fee, six hundred feet higher than Zermatt, lies most picturesquely in velvety meadows, surrounded by an amphitheatre of mountains, with the great Fee Glacier gleaming in the sunshine far above. To my mind there is no view in the region which excels that from the summit of the path as one emerges from the pine forests and first catches sight of this village.
From Sierre, a town on the Rhone west of Visp, runs upward a valley which, as far as my experience goes, is hardly known to English people at all. Most of those who leave the train at Sierre make their way to Montana-Vermala, but Vissoie and Zinal, the chief stations of the southern valley. arc excellent centres for excursions, and the entire valley is full of historical associations, for it was an aristocratic resort iii Roman times, and when Valais was a republic, in the Middle Ages, it was the scene of stirring exploits.
Farther west still, we come to Sion, and the phenomenon of the Visp valleys is repeated. There are again two valleys here. That of Heremence, leading to Arollii, is well served by post-motor and comparatively crowded in summer, but the Val d'Herens, in which the chief centre is Evolbne, remains unknown beyond Mayens de Sion and Vex. There is a superb view from Vex up this valley, which alone is sufficient to inspire multitudes to invade it. The road is both good and picturesque, running high above the stream of the Borgne, passing the curious formation known as the Pyramids of Euseigne, and a number of unusually charming little log-cabin villages. In this valley—in Evolbne, at any rate—the tradi- tional Valaisian costumes are genuinely worn on Sundays : not put on, as is the case in some villages, for the purpose of edifying tourists.
Martigny, nearer. the western limit of the canton, is an excellent centre for long excursions into valley and mountain. Its valleys are numerous. The best known is that taken by the post-motors (and charabancs from all around) by way of Orsieres and Bourg-St. Pierre to the Great St. Bernard Pass and Aosta. But there is also the Val de Bagnes, with its fine view extending to the Dent du Midi, and for those who will penetrate, with some difficulty, beyond Fionnay, a magnificent climb into Italy..
To my mind no valley in Southern Switzerland is more charming than the Val d'Illiez, near the head of which stands the well-known village of Champery. For one thing, it gives an unusual impression of spaciousness ; for another, it is eternally green, an Emerald Valley if there ever was one ; for a third, its heights—the great chain of the Dents du Midi—are
hardly surpassed in the country. • The goal of most who tramp or tour this valley will be Champery, and never had a village a more attractive approach than this. " It would seem to have been set before the Dents du Midi at the most favourable angle," wrote a Frenchman once, " like a seat before a picture in some gallery." That is exactly the impression of the tourist as he contemplates the range from one of the numerous hotel balconies which the village can now offer him. A visit to Champery is an expe- rience not soon forgotten, and I confess that of all the valleys of Valais I love it best.
ERIK CROFTS. .
[We shall be glad to answer queries arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed to the Travel Manager, The SPECTATOR, 99 Gower Street, W .C.1.—Ed. SPECTATOR.]
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