Le Reculet
Summit cross of Reculet
The Reculet is with 1717 m the second highest mountain peak of the entire Jura. It belongs to the Haute Chaîne, the easternmost and highest chain of the French Jura, and is situated in the Pays de Gex ( Ain department ), about 18 km west- northwest of the city of Geneva. The mountain name has the meaning of a secluded, remote place.
It is bordered to the east by the Reculet the level of the Pays de Gex and to the west by the valley of the Valserine. The crest of Reculet falls in these two directions steeply. He gets up without foothills directly out of the plane of the Pays de Gex and overlooks the pool from Geneva around 1300 m. To the northeast of the Jura ridge above the dip of Thoiry Sur (1640 m) leads directly to the Cret de la Neige over, to the southwest, a long ridge to the Grand Cret d' Eau extends. The official height of the Reculet is given as 1717 m, which is obtained by rounding the actual measured height of 1717.4 m. Thus, the Reculet before the survey in 2003 was only 20 cm lower than the adjacent Cret de la Neige ( 1717.6 m, today there is a difference in height of about 3 m). Previously it was assumed that the Reculet is the highest mountain of the Jura.
In geological terms the structure Reculet forms an anticline of the Jura Mountains, where the rock layers are pushed onto the further west in the sediments at the time of Jura folding in the late Miocene and Pliocene. The anticline is at the root of some 5 km wide and is oriented towards south-southwest - north- northeast, according to the strike of the Jura mountain chains in this section. The bedrock material of Reculet comes from marine sediments of the upper Jurassic period ( in the comb area especially the dolomitic limestones of the Port Landien, the limestone beds of the Kimmeridgien and Sequanien occur ) and the Cretaceous (mainly at the foot of the slope ). At the Roche Franche, a steep rock crash southwest of Reculet in the catchment area of the Valserine Valley, the relief-forming layers of rock and the fold structure of the Haute Chaîne are well exposed.
Because of the limestone could form different karst phenomena on the crest of the Reculet. There are numerous sinkholes and karst fields, the rain water seeps into the porous substrate and in karst springs normally occurs at the foot of the Jura chain light again. Therefore, the slopes of the Haute Chaîne show very few above-ground rivers.
The summit area of Reculet is grassy and shows a sub-alpine vegetation. Above about 1400 m is dominated by mountain pastures, including close to a coniferous forest zone, which in turn is replaced below about 900 m of deciduous forest. The Reculet is a beautiful mountain view of the high Jura; On clear days, offers an impressive view over the pool from Geneva to the Savoy Alps with Mont Blanc. The Reculet is part of the Parc Naturel Régional du Haut -Jura and the nature reserve Haute Chaîne du Jura.