Bonfire in the Alps: The Truth About this Day

Right at the start of autumn, I wanted to see the yellow and orange foliage in the region. The weekend before, we had passed by and I saw smoke in the distance — that’s when I realized it was possible to make a bonfire there. I didn’t think twice: we would come back the following weekend, even knowing it would mean six hours of driving in a single day. Some things in life just can’t wait.


The next morning, we woke up at 6 and left Lucerne to catch the sunrise on the road. The landscape was stunning: frozen leaves thawing in the sunlight, creating a golden mist.
To reach the spot, we drove into a forest covered in autumn leaves. What would be white with snow in a few months was now a complete yellow carpet of fallen foliage. We walked through an open field until we reached the lake shore, where there were still people on horseback — one of my favorite animals.


And then real life began:

Our goal was to light the bonfire using fallen branches. It was very windy, the light kept changing and messing up the recording, and we still needed to keep the fire going to stay warm. The crusty bread cooled quickly, our hands hurt when grabbing the food we barely ended up eating, and Lorenzo was cold even with jackets and a blanket. The setting was beautiful, but we couldn’t stay long or enjoy it the way we imagined.


A friend of mine who’s dating a Swiss guy told me he didn’t want to go there for a weekend camping trip because it was “too far” for just a weekend. And there we were… driving all the way up, six hours on the road for a single day to the Alps with our son. On the drive back, we laughed about how “crazy” we are for doing these things. And despite everything, I still think it was worth the few moments we had.