So yesterday we did 3 countries in one day and today we’ve done 3 seasons in one day! The weather has varied from 15 degrees and cloudy in Seez, 1 degree and snowing at the top of the Col del’iseran and 23 degrees and sunny when we arrived in Briancon!
The route today took us through Val D’Isere and many other out of season ski villages, all still beautiful to look at, very quaint and wooden, however they kind of had an eerie ghost town sort of vibe with the stationary ski lifts, shuttered up hotels and of course no snow! But you can really imagine the atmosphere in the ski season when the place is covered in snow, people are walking around in ski suits and boots lining up to take the lift to the top.
We ascended the Col del’Iseran (which is the highest paved mountain pass in the alps FYI) and didn’t we know it with just 1 degree temperatures creating snowy topped mountains and icy roads – when there’s a thousand foot drop off the edge of that cliff it’s pretty scary! Especially as we were so high up we were in the clouds and at one point I could barely see the brake lights of Dad’s car in front!! It was lucky we did not go into convertible mode today!
Anyway, after completing the Col we had a spot of lunch at a cute little family run restaurant and souvenir shop where Papa of course had to purchase some memorabilia in the form of an luminous yellow lycra shirt for the bike that I don’t think I’ve ever seen him ride!
The 2nd Col of the day was the Col de Galibier, often the highest point of the Tour De France, be warned a lot of cyclists like to practice for the Tour and they line the side of the roads huffing and puffing and not selling me on it going up the hill but smiling ear to ear going down the other side! The 2 Cols are on the Route De Grands Alps which runs from Lake Geneva to Menton in the Mediterranean – sounds hot and lovely!
Our final destination was the Auberge d’limpossible just outside Briancon.
We headed into the fortified old town for dinner, a beautiful village of narrow cobbled streets with tall yet pretty buildings staggering over them. It can get quite touristy but we are still out of season so it wasn’t crazy busy, plus it meant the parking was free!!!
French sentence of the day:
Je Ne Comprends Pas. Parler Vous Angalis? (I do not understand, do you speak English?) Trust me it comes in very handy, especially when you are at a toll booth and it won’t take your coins or card and the queue is getting progressively longer and angrier behind you and the assistant is yelling something in French!
Lexie
xxx