DAY 16: Sunday June 17th - Briancon to Montgenevre: 14.5k, 5hrs: Blue Skies, hot 18°C to 30°C
From Briancon - we never get tired of this view
2k from our give into Briancon
Looking back over Briancon
Pont d'Asfeld - built 1734
Filling water bottles - Fontaine Boullaine on GR5 near Briancon
Checking the thermometer - 30°C
Montgenevre - 1860metres
Today we travelled on the GR653D (Chemin de Compostelle) for the last day - It ends in Montgenevre. It links with the GR5, our track for the next 10 days - on and off. Today was hot - 30°C and we were lucky to find cold water at a bubbling fountain out of the ground - Fontaine Boullane. A short day - 14.5k, but I'm stuffed if I know how Hannibal took his elephants up the path we took today - he must have taken the main road.
We sleep in, because we can, at la Ferme de la Tour. A few phone calls via Skype to home and we pack. Breakfast is a really nice spread with hot fresh bread, fruit and coffee from a machine which actually grinds the coffee beans for each cup. We take our time, because we can, no hurry today. I frig around trying to publish my blog but I seem to encounter problems. It's slow - either a problem with WiFi, our server or Sandvox the software I am using. But the main part is published OK so i hope you all enjoyed the last 15 days - we certainly have - can't believe we're half way. We try to book a place for two night away in the mountains. We know we'll find a place in Montgenevre tonight as the town is full of hotels, but once in the mountains, it's nice to have somewhere to go. The owner suggest a give near Nevache - La Découverte. No answer by phone, so Ian send an email in his best French, and we hope we have WiFi tonight to check. Time to leave - we've messed around for too long and the shop will be shut at midday on a Sunday.
We stroll 3k down into the town of Briancon - it's Sunday, but we've been given directions to the only supermarket open on a Sunday morning - a Carrefours supermarket. We stock up on bread, chefs, dried ham and a bag of mace - thanks Donna for the tip - it's a bag of lettuce stuff that looks like green clover and is a real nice addition to a salad. I also indulge in a plastic bottle of mayonnaise - no says Ian, too heavy. But my hips are good (I doubt they have any more meat covering them and I have removed the football pads - I think they have just become accustomed to the pain of the weight) and my shoulders are hardening up - getting fitter I hope all round - so I volunteer to carry the mayonnaise. I also buy a packet of butter - I like a small piece of bread with a thick slab of butter. We re-pack our back packs, wrapping the cold stuff in my red scarf trying to insulate it from the heat - it's already 25°C - then leave.
We start to walk up hill - Briancon is at 1350 and Montgenevre 1850 so we have a 500metre uphill trek. It's hot - we get to a view point looking back at Briancon - you never tire of the view of snow capped alps and forests. We cross the bridge Pont d'Asfeld built in 1730 across a deep gully through which the Durance flows - its source is Montgenevre where we are headed and it travels almost the same route as we have walked from Avignon where it flows into the Rhone. Through forests and open fields - it's hot - and we are looking for shade for a cup of coffee. It's 12.30pm and way past our coffee time - just a bit more I tell Ian til we come to a nice spot. And within 20mins we stumble across a fountain bubbling icy cold water out of the ground right beside the GR5 path - the Fountaine Boullaine - boiling fountain. We stop for a coffee and refill our water bottles with icy water. Then its up and up.
After about 2 hrs of climbing, Ian is ahead and finds a u-beaut picnic spot for lunch and plonks his pack down before I get there - but he forgot the 2nd and 3rd cardinal rules of lunch (the 1st is don't stop before 1pm - that's OK it's 2.30pm, the second is don't stop before you have to climb a high mountain, and the third is don't stop on the side of steep grassy slope). So we sit on angled tree stumps, on the side of a steep slope with our packs, plates, mayonnaise, tomatoes and me sliding down the hill - not happy Jan. My pick for lunch tomorrow. But apart from rescuing our sliding lunch every minute, lunch is nice- remember I have carried a bottle of mayonnaise for the green mace. After lunch it's still another 1k to go and 100 meters uphill to Montgenevre a 10% grade -easy unless you've had a big lunch - 2nd cardinal rule broken - I'm definitely picking the lunch spot tomorrow.
We reach Montgenevre and it's just a magical moment - the town itself is nothing much - mostly a winter ski resort and most of the chalets are closed, but we find a hotel that's open, Hotel Alpi Cottia, a two star hotel just off the busy main road. And 5 mins later we are in our room, doing washing as everything is sweaty from a really hot day, hung up in the attic window in the breeze and sun, showered in another 2foot x 2foot shower, and then fiddled around with my WiFi and Sandvox website program to try to get it to publish. I have to eliminate my photo albums and keep the blogs trimmed to a few photos and a text story - that's OK til we get home when I can reduce the file size of the photos
6pm and time to go for a drink but we're not hungry - big breakfast - big lunch - and only a short walk. We sit in the bar having a wine and beer and I type diary - I just loooove my MacAir - thanks Ian for my mother's day present AND for downloading all the IGN maps, AND for adding on the GPS AND for being such good company - the lunch today on the slippery slope before an uphill walk is almost forgivable.
The barman is English, so a good time to ask for directions to any kind of shop open in the morning before we leave. He gives us directions to the small Sherpa shop that sells the basics of bread meat and cheese but it doesn't open til 9am, so we'll have to see what time we're prepared to wait in the morning.
Time for bed, our washing is almost dry.