Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 15 Les Vigneaux - Champcella

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. 

– Beverly Sills (soprano, 1929 - 2007)

My bed at Gîte d'étape le Montbrison was very comfy, and the duvet nice and warm, but once out of bed, there was not much to make me want to spend any longer in this rustic accommodation - not even any heating. I made myself a cup of tea and drank it to keep warm while packing up my things. Then I wished a bon journée to the woman in hot pink who had slept in the other room and got going - as far as the pâtisserie at the bottom of the hill!

After a cup of coffee and a raisin bun, I crossed the bridge over the Gyronde, a 22-kilometre glacial river than flows into the Durance at L'Argentière-la-Bessée, responsible for creating the side valley that I went way out of my way to cross yesterday.

The GR trail took me along a small paved road along the right bank of the Gyronde, heading gently downhill into the main valley of the Durance. My shins complained about the descent on hard pavement, after such a steep downhill walk yesterday afternoon, but the GR soon contented them, taking an "obligatory detour" uphill into the forest, on soft ground. 

Having climbed about a hundred metres above the river, I found myself on a scenic trail much like yesterday's, rounding the side of the hill and coming out of the trees at a scenic point overlooking the town of L'Argentière-la-Bessée. Just before reaching this point I met a large black dog wearing an orange high-vis harness and a bell around its neck, which began barking but did not frighten me as I could see it was just out for a walk in the woods and had nothing to defend (no sheep, no territory). Its owner called the dog and put it on leash. I asked him if he knew the reason for this scenic detour, and he replied that a landslide - or erosion by the river, I'm not sure exactly what he said - had made the regular route beside the river technically passable, but dangerous: one false step and you could end up in the river. So I was glad I had followed the signage and taken the detour, and that I had budgeted for such surprises in planning my stages: it's all right to put in an additional climb when you're walking 15 kilometres a day, but not so good if you're planning on 30!

After walking 7 kilometres, I took an additional detour into L'Argentière-la-Bessée to pick up a few groceries. I had purchased a baguette from the bakery in Les Vigneaux, but "hiker shall not live by bread alone", and so I stopped by the Aldi supermarket for dinner supplies - there being no other food sources along the trail until my destination in the evening. Unlike our ancestors, we no longer have the knowledge and ability to sustain ourselves by foraging in the forest, and the occasional detour into a town with a supermarket is de rigueur!

L'Argentière-la-Bessée is so named for its silver mines, already active in 1202 when the town was known as Castrum de Argenteria. The town stretches along the right bank of the Durance; in 1941 it was unified with La Bessée, the town on the left bank, to form a single municipality with a compound name (as is the case of many other French towns).

I walked through the town on the sidewalk of the main road, passing through an industrial district, which was pretty scenic as industrial zones go! I met up with the route of the GR path again on the way out of the town, but then came the second surprise of the day: a sign saying that the path was closed due to fire damage, fallen trees and rocks caused by a forest fire this past summer. No problem: I continued walking along the road, which is a part of the well-known Izouard Pass cycling route and has not just one but two cycling lanes, on either side of the road. On Sunday afternoons in summertime, the whole road is reserved for walkers and cyclists only! 

The view from the road

The red is not autumn leaves, but forest fire damage

Walking along the road was faster than the footpath through the forest on the hillside would have been, and I soon came to the side road where I was to turn up the hill to my accommodation - the only one open in the area at this time of year, which it had taken me some time and effort to find! The road had a warning sign saying that it was closed to cyclists, and that vehicles should not stop, due to the danger of falling rocks as a result of the forest fire; I presumed this would mean the road was closed to pedestrians too. A quick search on the Internet revealed that there was one more route I could take to get up to Le Chambon, but I thought I'd better check with my host that that route was OK; I figured he ought to know, being a professional hiking guide! He assured me this last route would be fine, and would take me on the route of an old Roman road. Confident in this solution, I sat happily in the sunshine on the river bank tearing chunks off my fresh baguette from the bakery to eat with Morbier - my favourite French cheese (though it's not from this area). 

Lunch break over, I crossed back to the right side of the river and headed down the Route de Rame across a flat, grassy expanse between the river and the base of the mountains. This brought me to the site of an abandoned village, Rame, a thriving community in Roman times and during the Middle Ages. It is thought that the village was destroyed by flooding, when a glacial lake at the top of the gorge above it broke through the natural barrier that was responsible for the formation of the lake, flooding the village below. In fact the site of Rame is at the bottom end of the Gouffre de Gourfouran, a narrow gorge dug into the rock by the Biaysse River.

This tower is all that remains of Rame

In the last part of today's walk, I climbed to the top of the cliffs beside the Gourfouran gorge, crossed the Biaysse at Pallon, and continued along the top of the cliffs, following the route of the ancient Roman road. I took a detour to a clifftop viewpoint to peer into the dark depths of the gorge below. 

View over the grassy floodplain

Bridge over the Biaysse 

View from the bridge 

The gorge - it's dark down there!

I returned to the paved road into Le Chambon, just outside Champcella, and located my accommodation at Les Voûtes de Chambon. This beautiful holiday apartment in the vaulted cellar of the owners' home is normally only available for rentals of three nights or more, for up to six people; but Nicolas, a hiker himself, took pity on a poor pilgrim and offered me a special rate for a one-night stay. After all, it's low season in the mountains, and in fact the water and the gas had been turned off and he had to turn them back on for me. 😁 I have cooking facilities and am about to make myself some pasta for dinner, followed by marinated anchovies and salad - all of which I have been carrying on my back ever since the supermarket back in L'Argentière-la-Bessée this morning! Oh how I love the challenges of walking in France! 😅

Les Vigneaux - Champcella 19 km

(including various detours!)

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, telling me she comes here every year to go hiking in these mountains. It certainly can't be beat price-wise, but the place could use a good scrub and some repairs - I opened the window and the handle came off in my hand 😅

Briançon - Les Vigneaux 22 km