Mountain Pastures Descent

Les alpages suisses: when the cows come down from the mountain pastures at the end of the summer. It's a time of wonderful festivity as the cows arrive in their farms for the autumn and winter months.  This is called the 'Désalpe'. If you're interested, you can read about it here:
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/events/desalpe-2/

My favourite breed of Swiss cows is the Simmental, they are brown and cream. You can see my own little Simmental carved wooden cow with her own bell! These cows are hand-crafted and extremely well-known and are made in the Berner Oberland. They exist in three colour combinations: black, red and my favourite brown which is the one that I have!

On Saturday, I started reading the paper (offered free to clients in cafés). I liked the article on Swiss Traditions so much that I bought my own paper to bring home. You can see the front page which I have framed here.

The cows are decorated with flowers and branches and the best milker has the most elaborate head decoration and leads the procession down into the valley.

I've already been to two Desalp celebrations and this year I would rather like to take part in another one!

For anyone interested in those carved cows. Here is an interesting link:
https://houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/story-behind-switzerlands-iconic-wooden-toy-cow