27 August - Across the Montgenevre Pass to Susa, Italy

Unfortunately neither of us slept very well and after a slow start we didn’t get ourselves on the road until nearly 10am. Our navigation system (Sygic) had been playing up, and we later worked out that it must have had had a gap in its downloaded French road map. It had cause us a bit of strife and for John, a number of expletives. The day’s travelling was fairly hard going, partly due to the quirks in the navigation, partly to the new French 80kmh open road speed limit and partly due to the lack of welcoming roadside areas to pull off and have a break. We have come to appreciate that NZ does rest areas very very well.

Not far into the day’s journey we stopped briefly for a coffee, and picked up a baguette again. As with yesterday, we drove until nearly 2pm while on the lookout for a nice roadside picnic area. However this time we couldn’t find one with a toilet and were forced to pull over at a picnic table where the 270 degree view was of small deposits of toilet paper in evenly-spaced heaps. Not pleasant. We filled our rolls and quickly set off again. Of course, Sod's Law ensured that less than five minutes further down the road was a lovely reserve area, complete with picnic tables, toilets and a small lake with people frolicking in the water!

Back in the Alps - Ecrins National Park

 

Moving along, we had plenty of time up our sleeve, so instead of passing through Briançon elected to stop and have a look at its amazing Vauban fort adjacent to the road. We soon found out that high walls enclosed the historic town centre, which was successfully defended by the fort’s garrison for a period of three months when it was besieged by Austrian forces in 1815. The town was very pretty, heavily touristy but with some cute shops and it was a pleasure to stroll through. 

Briancon's Vauban fortress

Briancon Old Town

Briancon Old Town

Back on the road it was only another hour until we arrived at Susa via a fairly steep pass through the Alps. Traffic was light and the scenery was, as you’d expect, mountainous and seriously grand. Before we’d arrived at Briançon, we’d very much enjoyed travelling through the hilly, lush and well cultivated lands of the Vaucluse and Hautes-Alpes, with numerous pretty settlements dotted beside the road or on the hillsides. It is markedly different from the straggly garrigue scrub of the landscape of the Narbonne-Montpellier region, i.e. closer to our neck of the woods. 

A little twisty at times

Into Italy through Montgenevre/Claviere

Exilles Fort

Much to our surprise it started to rain lightly when we were pulling in to Susa. Our host met us and we were soon into a nice little apartment, complete with all the trimmings for making ourselves breakfast in the morning. Bonus! Our first stop, when setting foot back outside, was the café around the corner which sold ice creams that were clearly very popular. Of course, my Italian (what Italian?) was tested straight away. In thanking the server for my ice-cream I immediately replied “gracias”. Yes, that’s Spanish. Doh! Granted I wasn’t speaking French in Italy, but I wasn’t speaking Italian either. John knows that I always tend to lag one country behind whenever we are crossing borders. However I was last in Spain two weeks ago!

Our Susa Airbnb is the window above the arched doorway

Susa street

We honestly didn’t feel up to doing much. The temperature was a much more acceptable 29 degrees, but we’ve found the two days’ driving quite hard work, and I was still feeling a little shaky as well. We really do think I must have suffered some degree of concussion in the pool collision. We opted to pick up a few groceries and cook our own meal of vongole pasta and bits. An early night was required.

Northern Italy does ironwork very well