Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 14 Briançon - Les Vigneaux

A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving 

- Lao Tzu (6th century BC)

This morning I said goodbye to my walking companion Mariella, who returned home from Briançon via bus back over the pass and then train from Oulx to Vercelli. She was impressed how long it took to cover all the ground we have walked together over the past couple of weeks - even by mechanised means! 

I set off from Briançon as the church bells chimed eight o'clock. The old city is so well fortified, I passed through no less than three city gates - still with the big wooden doors in place! 

Trotting down the hill with the local children on their way to school, I turned onto a steep path through a park down to the lower town of Briançon, crossed the Durance on a foot-bridge and came out in front of the big old ruined building I had seen from old Briançon far above. The building looks like a former military barracks, and according to the signs on the fencing around it, it is going to be converted into modern energy-efficient apartments with geothermal heating - looks like there's a lot of work to be done! 

I walked through the newer part of Briançon and on through Villar Saint-Pancrace, stopping at a book crossing to pick up a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring - in English - with a receipt from a Mexican bookshop inside the back cover. This much-travelled volume seemed the ideal companion for future evenings alone, very light to carry. It reminded me that reading and endlessly re-reading The Lord of the Rings at the tender age of 9 or 10 is probably what inspired me to take up long-distance walking in the first place. Though I have no intention of going as far as Mordor!

Villar Saint-Pancrace

Coming out of the village, I walked a few kilometres along the road leading toward the Izoard Pass before turning onto a dirt track down to the river, part of the Sentier Pedestre en memoire aux refugies espagnols. I knew from an Isabel Allende novel about the many Spanish Republicans who fled to France in February 1939, when they realised they were losing the Civil War; what I did not know was that they were interned in labour camps, one of which was located on the Ferme St. Jean, in the field I was walking across. 250 refugees lived in tents on this land, working on the digging of the Prelles road tunnel. The ruins of their wash-house have been preserved as a monument. 

So many layers of history, since the Gauls and the Romans first walked the Via Domitia! So much human suffering. And presumably, a lot of human happiness as well. 

Happiness for me took the form of crossing the bridge over the Durance, from winter into summer! I had been walking on the left bank of the Durance, in the shade of the mountains, where there was frost on the grass; climbing into the hills on the right bank, in the sunshine, I soon had to stop and remove my jacket, hat and gloves! 

The Durance, in the shade of the mountains 

Taking a break in the sunshine

The rest of this stage was a fantastic hike taking me back up to 1650 metres above sea level - only 200 metres lower than the altitude of the Mongenèvre Pass where we crossed the border into France yesterday - on a winding trail, sometimes a dirt road and at other times a footpath through the forest. The views were amazing on this beautiful clear day. I had read about a way to take a shortcut and skip the elevation gain by walking on roads in the bottom of the valley, but I was glad I had decided to stick to the GR 653D trail instead, enjoying all the fantastic views of the mountains and the valley far below. After all, for those intent on getting to Santiago as quickly as possible, there are planes, buses and trains... for those of us who walk, it is the Way that matters, not the destination!

I walked across a rock slide and through the tiny village of Bouchiers, which appeared to be carved out of and into the rock. I passed the Pas du Loup mountain refuge and observatory, where I wouldn't have minded staying if only it had not been closed for the low season. Continuing to climb above the observatory, the view extended all the way back to the fortresses above Briançon! 

I walked a narrow path perched on the edge of a sheer drop down to the river valley far below, carefully watching my step and trying not to look down: I do not suffer particularly from fear of heights, but still... 

I felt so high up, and the village I could see in the valley below appeared so low down, that I wondered how on earth the trail was going to get me down there in only an hour and twenty minutes, as a trail marker promised. And it did in fact take slightly longer, and I was just wondering which was actually more tiring, going up or going down, when the church belltower came into view.

In Les Vigneaux I am staying at Gîte d'Étape Montbrison, a rustic mountain shelter attached to a fellow's house in the village. It has a small kitchen/dining room, a couple of dormitories and a small bedroom, which I am occupying. As well as blocks of toilets, sinks and showers. Last weekend a group of 40 Italians from the Alpine Club of Biella were here, but tonight I have the whole place to myself, except for one other woman with bright red hair and a bright pink jacket who just came in wanting to chat and telling me she comes here every year. It certainly can't be beat price-wise, but the place could use a good scrub and some repair work - I opened the window and the handle came off in my hand 😅

Briançon - Les Vigneaux 22 km

Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 13 Cesana Torinese - Briançon

Il più grande alpinista al mondo è colui che si diverte di più.

(The world's greatest mountain-climber is the one who has the most fun.)

- Alex Lowe

A fantastic day of real Alpine hiking! And now we are in France, having completed the Vercelli - Mongenèvre branch of the Via Francigena and started on the Grand Randonnée path GR 653D, loosely based on the ancient Roman Via Domitia.

When we began our day at 7 in the morning in Cesana Torinese, the temperature was only one degree above zero! We braved the chill long enough to walk to the café in the centre of town for cappuccino and croissants. 

Wrapped up warmly in our jackets, hats and gloves, we left Cesana Torinese behind, walking a couple of kilometres along the shoulder of the highway - where there was very little traffic early on a Sunday morning - until we reached the Gorge di San Gervasio trailhead. 

Several pairs of rock climbers were either setting off up the trail or making their way up the cliff face and the Via Ferrata just past the start of the trail. We continued further, carefully picking our way over rockslides and crumbling sections of riverbank trail as we headed right into the gorge. 

In many places the gorge is so narrow that boardwalks have been built for the trail. We repeatedly crossed the river on makeshift bridges made out of logs, while a suspension bridge, not currently in use, hung high above us.

At the top end of the gorge we climbed a steep concrete staircase beside a waterfall, coming out onto a grassy meadow below a ski chairlift line. Here we sat on a bench marvelling at the landscape we had just come through before continuing on through the ski resort of Claviere, where we might have stopped for a hot chocolate if only everything hadn't been closed for the season! 

Just past Claviere we crossed the border into France, at 1865 metres above sea level! 

The familiar GR ("Grand Randonnée) trail markings are back! After following them all across France from Menton to the Pyrenees in 2017 - 2019... and then again from Calais to the Swiss border in 2023... it's good to see them again. Those red and white stripes feel like old friends! And it was good to see the stone marking the start of the of the Via Domitia (or at least the French portion thereof), with the indication 2010 kilometres to Santiago! (Probably an underestimate.)

After the obligatory photo shoot at the start of the Via Domitia and the Napoleonic obelisk, we stopped for a picnic on a sunny bench opposite the golf course in Mongenèvre. On a Sunday afternoon off-season, everything in town appeared to be closed except for the Gendarmerie. With no particular interest in going there, we moved on, walking out of town along the highway and then turning off onto a woodland trail heading steeply downhill. Alternating forest trails with rocky gravel roads, we rapidly lost 500 metres of altitude, and the air became noticeably warmer. 

This pleasant path took us into Briançon from above, and from the back, as compared to how one arrives by road. We crossed the bridge constructed in 1734 and climbed to the fortress at the top of the town before descending into the historic town centre, known as Cité Vauban.

Brigantium in Roman times, Briançon as we see it today was built by Vauban (1633–1707), a military engineer of King Louis XIV, to defend the region from Austrians. Because of the town's strategic position overlooking the road to the pass, a great number of other fortifications have been constructed on the surrounding heights, especially towards the east. Since 2008 the town has been included in the Fortifications of Vauban Unesco World Heritage Site. 

I have already spent several days exploring Briançon, in 2019, so I could happily spend the evening enjoying the comforts of our large and luxurious room on the top floor of the Auberge de la Paix, the only hotel located within the walls of the historic town centre (there are many more in the modern town in the valley below). We got a special deal because it is low season in the mountains - in between the summer keep-cool-and-hike-in-the-mountains season and the start of the winter skiing season. Many of the restaurants and cafés in town are closed, but we found a small supermarket which was, oddly, open on a Sunday afternoon, and bought some dinner supplies and a bottle of Côtes du Rhône to enjoy in the comfort of our room.

Cesana Torinese - Briançon 20 km