Descent in the wild

The pass to which the military road leads is the Col des Rochilles at around 2500m. It's a wonderful open space for dozens of marmots and bivouacing humans, who spend a fair amount of time observing each other. There are two big lakes at the top, and a smaller one, just a bit lower on the east side, that forms the source of the Clarée torrent. The pass formed a border crossing between Piedmont (Savoye) in the north, and France (Dauphiné) in the south. It must have been a nice road as we can see from big square stones and a nice border mark, but a landslide seems to have closed it a long time ago.

Traversing with the bicycles is somewhat acrobatic, Alain even ends up doing a spectacular summersault when his bike refuses to follow his wishful orders! Not much harm. The scenery is wild and deserted, the Clarée valley is closed to motor vehicles and exceptionally remote.

The main town here is the little village of Nevache, near which the traffic resumes. We are now close to another former border between France and Italy, col de l'échelle, and soon turn up in the "Vallée étroite". This is a former Italian territory, acquired by France at the end of WWII. Its rather unclear why, as it communicates well with Italy, the phone numbers and rubbish collection, and most visitors, are Italian -- never mind, it's a delightful small place of the world where we find a good place to pitch the tent.Read more