Monday 11th July: Blue skies cool to very hot 15°C to 31°C
Briancon: 20k walk: 10.15am to 5.15pm: 7 hrs
Accommodation: Hotel Edelweiss
Breakfast in the park
A spare day in Briancon to reflect, recover and rejoice. Highlight for Ian and I was climbing to the top of Croix de Toulouse at 1920m, and highlight for Jenny and Graham was racing up in the Telecabine Ratier to Serre Chevalier where it was freezing and raining.
Our day starts with breakfast in the park, having been to the Carrefours City just 200 metres down the road from our hotel to buy muesli, yoghurt, milk and fresh bread. It's already 20°C and a hazy day, indicative of storms looming in the afternoon. It's Monday morning so there's only the 4 of us in the park by the lake.
Jenny and Graham return to the Hotel Edelweiss and walk up to the Fort Dauphin above Briancon. They then took the Telecabine Ratier, newly built in 2013, up to Serre Chevalier where the storms came in early and they were cold and wet.
3k walk to Intersport for a gas can
Briancon from road above
half way to Croix de Toulouse
Fountain to Croix de Toulouse
Croix de Toulouse at 1920 metres
Croix de Toulouse at 1920 metres
Lunch at Croix de Toulouse
Croix de Toulouse at 1920 metres
Briancon from Croix de Toulouse
Jan, Ian, Jenny and Graham celebrating end of GR5 Briancon
Ian and I walked 3k to the Intersport on the outskirts of Briancon, to get another isobutane/propane gas can which should last us for the next week watching the Tour de France in Melaucene then Paris. We walked back in the heat of the day to the Hotel Edelweiss to have a quick cup of tea in our room before packing lunch.
It was already 31°C at 12.45pm when we left to hike 700 metres to the top of the Croix de Toulouse, a large rocky outcrop overhanging Briancon at 1920 metres. After 20 minutes we reach the ruins of the Fort de Sallettes, and 18th Century fort built to guard approaches from Italy. Another hour of climbing through shady forests and we're at the top of the Croix de Toulouse at 1920 metres where there's a convenient picnic table.
We have a late 2pm lunch of fresh bread, butter, tomato and camembert cheese, whilst admiring the view over Briancon, and watching the looming thunderstorms approaching from the mountains up the two valleys. It looks like it’s already raining at the top of the Telecabine Ratier where Jenny and Graham went today. Time to walk down the gravel road back into Briancon.
It was pleasantly cool, about 15°C, at the top but as we descended, it became warmer, and after an hour's walking downhill past a pharmacy, the temperature on the sign was showing 31°C. It began to rain, not heavily, but enough to drag out my poncho for the first time this trip. But by the time we reached the Hotel Edelweiss, the sun was out and the rain had stopped. We wash today's clothes and have a quick shower before meeting Graham and Jenny downstairs as agreed at 5pm.
Jenny and Graham tell us that the cable car trip in the Telecabine Ratier to Serre Chevalier was freezing cold and raining, something we’d already guessed when we looked across from Croix de Toulouse. They have checked out the local supermarket chain E.Leclerc and found they have cold wine and beer, so that's where we go to buy our picnic dinner - salty potato chips with beer, salmon, mache (green leaves that look like clover), tomatoes, with champagne and rose - perched on the side of the embankment of the Durance River running swiftly below us.
A slow walk home to our hotel in the cool of the evening and bed at 9pm. Tomorrow we have a long day travelling to Melaucene to watch two stages of the Tour de France - Stage 12, the climb to Mont Ventoux and Stage 13, the time trial from Bourg St Andeol.