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

Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 12 Oulx - Cesana Torinese

Perché vengo a rischiare così facilmente la mia vita, quando potrei starmene tranquillamente a casa?

Lo stesso istinto che mi spinge a sfidare la morte per amare la vita, a cercare il freddo per amare il caldo, a stare da solo per amare la compagnia, a sopportare la fatica per amare il riposo, a salire una cima per il suo versante più difficile per amare il più facile…

(Why do I come here and put my life at risk, when I could stay quietly at home? It is the same instinct as drives me to challenge death in order to love life, to seek out the cold in order to love the heat, to be alone in order to love company, to bear fatigue in order to love rest, to climb a mountain peak by the most difficult route in order to love the easier way...) 

- Ernesto Lomasti, mountaineer (1959 - 1979)

A short but challenging stage, including what may be the steepest slope we have ever climbed on a Long Walk!

We began the day over coffee and croissants with our 85-year-old hostess at B&B Alba Serena in Oulx. Rossana is a lively lady with a twinkle in her eye who lives alone in a large house and offers one of her bedrooms, as well as an attic apartment, as a B&B not only to help pay the bills but to meet travellers of all kinds, and have her morning coffee in company! 

We bid her goodbye and headed through the centre of Oulx and up through the old town, continuing to climb out of the town and through the adjacent hamlet of San Marco.

Soon we were far from civilisation on a pleasant forest track with fantastic views of the snow-capped mountains ahead. We have now left behind the busy motorway and the construction sites for the rapid railway line, which curve away toward Bardonecchia and the Frejus tunnel.

The trail took us down to the floor of the valley, proceeded parallel to the highway, which we could hear but not see, and then veered steeply uphill on a dirt trail made slippery by rocks and autumn leaves. In this section of the trail I was too busy huffing and puffing and watching my step to take any photographs! There were no trail markings until we got to the top of the climb, and it was so absurdly steep we wondered whether it really was a path at all... but when we got to the top and our route levelled off, there it was: a signpost for the Via Francigena, pointing the way we had come from and the way we were going. It would have been nice to have a signpost at the bottom, too! And at several other spots previous, where there were intersections of trails with no indication which one we were supposed to take. I followed the gps track, but the gps signal is not always accurate in the mountains; a couple of times we went a few hundred metres in the wrong direction before realising and turning back! 

Resting and recovering at the top of the big climb

Pretty mushrooms

Our efforts were rewarded with a flat, easy trail along the side of the slope and beautiful views of the mountain landscape. We continued along this easy and pleasant trail to Solomiac, a largely abandoned hamlet of stone houses, and Mossieres, a slightly larger and more inhabited village, where we stopped on a bench for a picnic of cheese and crackers and fruit.

We followed the road out of Mossieres down to the highway, crossed it, and continued through an adventure park and along a trail beside the river and then along the road into Cesana Torinese. 

Arriving in the town centre, we stopped in at the tourist information office to stamp our pilgrim credentials and then sat down in a cosy café to celebrate our arrival with a beer. We got chatting with some local people at nearby tables who were curious about our route and our experiences along the way. One of them had a son who had walked the Camino de Santiago, and so he had a general idea of what it's all about! 😁

We crossed the river and walked a few hindred metres further to our accommodation. The place where pilgrims normally stay, the church-run Casa per Ferie Frassati, offers a special deal for pilgrims on foot but is currently closed: in between the summer season and the ski season, there are not many tourists around, and a lot of hotels and restaurants close so the families that run them can take some time off. We found a place that is open, though not particularly welcoming: a woman wearing disposable orange work coveralls over her clothes opened the door and let us in, took our details and our money and then disappeared, going back to her renovation work, or whatever she had been doing before we arrived. 

Our room at Casa per Ferie Beato Rosaz, the only remotely affordable option in this ski resort town,  is rather more spartan than we expected for the price we paid - but to compensate, we have a balcony with an amazing view over the town and the Alps! We sat out on the balcony with aglass of red wine and some dinner supplies from the supermarket until the last of the sun's rays ceased to glow on the snow-topped mountain peaks and the chill in the air drove us inside. We are now 1350 metres above sea level!

The view from our balcony 

Oulx - Cesana Torinese 18 km