Jane and Hal's Trip to France
Summer 2005
Route des Grandes Alps
Thursday - August 4 - We awoke to another delicious petite dejeuner of cafe au lait and toast with homemade jams. We then headed off toward Gap - a very long drive. We took the long way through Aix-en-Provence to do nearly all of the driving on the peage. We arrived in Gap around three in the afternoon and headed for the tourist office. We picked up some brochures and then headed for the Tourton restaurant. The tourtons were fantastic. Basically small knishes. The potato was clearly the best.

We then headed for Briancon through magnificent countryside in the Alps. We drove around Briancon looking for the tourist office and finally gave up and checked into the Hotel Parc. It was nothing special - to be sure, but it was where Lance Armstrong and the Discovery team stayed a couple of weeks ago as the tour went through Biancon.

We decided to have dinner at a local chinese restaurant. It was not terrible and was the sort of light fare that we were looking for after the stomach upsets that both Jane and Hal sufferred much of the trip.

A rock band was performing in front of our hotel - which made sleeping difficult. They finally quit a bit after midnight.

Friday - August 5 - We got up early and had breakfast at the hotel. Then we headed north along the Route des Grandes Alps.

We stopped at Col du Lauteret where there were just spectatucular views. It looked like a lunar landscape. We then climbed and climbed and climbed up to the Col du Galibier. This was one of the most spectacular views we had ever seen.

 

The local sheep as we drop down from the Col du Galibier.
We continued on through to the Val d' Issaren. That was even more spectacular. The alpine view are not to be believed. The Route des Grandes Alpes is worth negotiating because of the the spectacular views. Unbelievable. The road is mostly 2 lanes, but often it is a squeeze if there is oncoming traffic. Jane did nearly all of the driving. When Hal did drive Jane felt sick (independant of Hal's driving capability) and preferred driving herself. She doesn't feel as sick when she is behind the wheel. The trip from Briancon to Val D'Isere is one of the most dramitic. It consists of numerous hairpin turns with very steep grades, often as much as 11% or 12%. Jane did and admirable job negotiating it.
After St. Michel du M. the Routes des Grandes Alps follows the national roadway N6. We stopped for lunch at a creperie in a small town Orelle on the N6. We then had a small detour (raod work we presume) before getting into Modane. We continued on to Lanslebourg and then back on the secondary roads that make up the majority of the Grande Routes des Alpes. We drove over the Val D'Isseran - the most specatacular of the journey and ended up in Val d'Isere

We went to the tourist offifce and the recommended the Hotel Blizzard as the best hotel in town. We booked a room. A lovely room with a balcony overlooking the mountain. The hotel was lovely and had an outdoor heated pool as well as a hot tub. We took advantage of both.

We had dinner at the hotel. We both started with a smoked salmon appetizer. Hal had steak, Jane had veal. We had a lovely 1/2 bottle of a nice Burgandy. We had a raspberry tart with leechee sorbet. Delicious.
There were hangglidders above Val D'Isere. Are these people completely nuts? They also seem to have caught the wind currents and stayed up in the same area for many minutes.

Saturday - August 6 - We got up and had a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel. We then headed toward Chamonix. We continued from Val d'Isere along the Route des Grandes Alpes (RGA) until just before Bourg St. Maurice. We left the RGA and went over to la Rosiere 1850 and the Petite Col de St. Bernard. This was a spectacular climb with numerous hairpin turns on the well maintained highway.

 
We crossed into Italy at the top of the pass. We then continued down the pass and evenutally into Courmeyour on the Italian side at the base of Mont Bianco .
We had lunch in Courmeyour. We drove around the town and tried to find the hotel we had stayed at 36 years ago. The town has gotten so much bigger and has dramatically changed and we were unable to figure out where our old hotel was. Oh well.