Briancon, Briancon, Briancon!

A beautiful but windy walk over Col des Thures brought us to Nevache where thundershowers nudged us on to a bus headed to Briancon to avoid getting soaked. This means we pick up an extra rest day to explore this historic walled fortress city. We bypassed the strategic Col de Montgenevre where Napolean, Charles VIII, Charlemagne, and Caesar marched their armies back and forth across. Sorry Caesar, we're goin' to Briancon!

Briancon is dramatically perched on top of cliffs high in the mountains. 300 years ago when informed that neighboring Savoie's army was poaching territory, Louis XIV dispatched Vaubaun, his military architect and engineer to build a fort to guard France's eastern frontier. Today, Savoie is a French provence and Briancon the second
highest major city in Europe after Davos. It's also home to an impressive cathedral. As if Louis added, "Vaubaun, build a big church too - those guys in the mountains are major heathens!"
We luckily found the charming and inexpensive Pension des Ramparts located within the city walls. A scene out of an old French movie, the pension had the basics: petit dejeuner and an afternoon crowd gathered around the bar watching the Tour de France. A great place to explore, kick back, and relax!

Borders without borders

Proceeded over next col, Mt Thabor, 3000' up w/panoramic views, leaving Savioe region for the rocky and dry Hautes Alpes. Descending gentle paths through boulder strewn meadows and ultimately into pine forests delivered a splendid day of walking down to Valle Etroite. Now everyone seems to be speaking Italian. The original culture and language remained even though France annexed this region a long time ago (post-WWI?) Our server explained it this way, "We are Italian here but it's ok to speak French because we're in France." Had a hearty seven-course meal tonight. In a remote mountain village, consisting of a tiny one room chapel, surrounded by five small dwellings, you're treated to one of the tastiest meals you can remember. Not sure we can
handle too much more rich food. But price is right: demi-pension with small private bunkroom: 40 euros each.

One Meter of Fresh Powder

Our arrival to the highest pass, Col de Chaviere, in the Vanoise
yesterday coincided with an unusual summer snow storm. Fortunately, we awoke to a blue sky morning with a 6000' snow level blanketing the surrounding mountains. Ascending higher and higher past rock cairns toward the col felt more like Nepal than France. After some postholing through snowfields, we negotiated the final approach to the steep pass with relative safety thanks to careful footing across shifting rock scree hidden beneath the fresh snow. ("Focus on your footwork" is mantra.) Beyond the excitement, the snow dressed up panoramic views making this pass crossing one of the most memorable.

More about the cheese... On the way to the pass, the attractive solid tan cows producing the milk for the Beaufortain cheese graze. They move from the valley bottom to as high as 8000' to find the best grass. France has fought within the EU to retain its own method of cheese-making which is not subject to the standard process of pasteurization. Rather, untreated whole milk is put into production as it has been for centuries. After the moulding process, the cheese spends a minimum of 5 months maturing in cool cellars. The inability to export the unpasteurized cheese is putting massive pressure on the traditional cheesemakers, one negative to globalization.
To avoid staying in the industrial valley town of Modane tonight, we are staying not at a refuge but in a ski condo in Valfrejus, halfway up the mountain. Earlier this morning we'd quickly dropped 2000' only to proceed steeply up another trail to a similar altitude this afternoon. This leaves us a reasonable 3000' climb tomorrow to the next pass on our way south toward Briancon.