Framedlight

We returned through the Col du Lautaret and then rejoined the Route des Grandes Alpes and the good old D902 and made our way south through Briançon, a town heavily fortified by Vauban in the 19th century as its sits close to the French/Italian border. We passed through Serre Chevalier where we took our first 'foreign' holiday with the kids and a tent over 20 years ago and continued to Cervieres and the foot of the Col d'Izoard. The road from here climbs steeply up to the top of the col (2,361m) and as you ascend you enter a most extraordinary world. The ground is bare and outcrops of gnarled pinnacles of weathered rock rise into the sky. The vegetation is sparse with twisted trees and small clumps of dry grass. It was this landscape I saw 20 years ago that encouraged me to revisit in 2014 and in hindsight we should have stayed overnight to get some dawn and sunrise photographs as the long shadows of those rocks would have been superb. However, after lunch on the descent o...

Looking back I cannot believe we packed so much into one day. After driving or cycling through the Col du Galibier and the Col du Lautaret and also stopping to take photographs, we were still in time for a late lunch. On the road to Bourg d'Oisans and Alpe d'Huez we noticed a little byroad coiling seductively down towards a blue pool. Perfect for a refreshment stop. When we got down to the pool we discovered that it was the feeder for a small hydro scheme producing electricity for the local village, Villar d'Arene. Very neat. There was a place to park by the pool and we duly ate, admired the scenery and noted it for a possible overnight stay. The first picture is our first view of Villar d'Arene looking down from the main road. We drove for quite a while through the Ecrins national park and got to Bourg d'Oisans and the start of Alpe d'Huez around four o'clock. It was not inviting. Bourg is quite a large town and was grey with cloud. I drove up the switchb...

We drove down from the Col du Galibier through mist but as we got lower the clouds cleared and we could see that we were descending into the bowl of a broad valley flanked by mountains. This was the Col du Lautaret (2058m) where the road divides, going towards Briancon or La Grave. The Col du Galibier is the boundary between Savoie and the Hautes Alpes départements. We stopped on the way down from Galibier for a short walk and to observe some marmots running round the rocks. They were too far away to photograph but we did catch them at another location later in the trip. At the Col du Lautaret itself is a restaurant and 2 exceedingly large car parks, where we stopped and explored the hills a little although the no dogs on footpaths rule still applied. The backdrop to many of the pictures is the magnificent rocky face of La Meije (3,983m) with its crags and glaciers. This lies in the Écrins chain of mountains and dominates the area. It was the last major peak in the Alps to be climbed...