France and Italy 2025

In between town bumps and the trip to Sweden I had a little time; and decided to go to the alps. But which and where and how and what for? The usual endless comparison of the merits and demerits of various forms of transport eventually converged on the car. Because: I could choose my own time and places; I've long wanted to drive through France by myself at a somewhat more leisurely pace; and I could throw stuff in the back. In particular, I threw my bicycle in the back, thinking that I could "do" a few Tour de France climbs to see what they're like. The full set of 450 pix is here; that includes pix of my written diary. There's an irritating dichotomy: it is rather nice to write the diary by hand on paper; but it is far more convenient for the purposes of writing this up afterwards to have it as text; ah well, there is no perfection in this world. For the moment, this will be mostly pictures interspersed with very brief notes. Note: publication date backdated to start of trip.

Tuesday 29th July: faithful MJ67 DDF waits for the ferry.

Another return to St Quentin and Laon.

Car camping, first night, in Chalon-sur-Saone (campsite).

Wednesday 30th July: woken surreally by a hot air ballon. Cycle into town for cafe and look around (GPS). Drive to St Jean de Maurienne (which is part of the answer to "what is on the other side, looking north, from the Aiguille du Goleon" (see end of 2024)). Poke around town a little; there's not a lot to see, it is distinctly less nice than say Bourg d'Oisans; but there is a charming little church (nice misericords) and cloisters.

To campsite. It's now afternoon; decide to do the Col du Glandon (GPS). Rashly, I decide to cycle from where I am; and rashly I go down into La Chambre "to make sure I get it all". But in fact the "true" climb starts from pretty well where I turned down, as I discover coming back. Motto: check the start points of the climbs on the wub first. The valley is pleasant enough, but sadly has a main road / motorway to Italy going through it, which all the local roads have to weave around.

Anyway, I get to 4 km from the summit, it is getting late, I'm knackered, so I stop. The summit is 1924; 400 m to climb in the next 4 km is 10% gradient, which is tough.

That's when I discover that actually, going down is hard too. It is sufficiently steep that my courage fails me and I need to brake, since going steeply (max 10%) down at above 30 km/h is scary; and continuous braking is hard on the hands. This is also when I realise that perhaps I could have done some basic maintenance, like checking the brake wear, before throwing the bike into the car.

And so back, lateish. Here's my little embayment in typical French campsite style. And, in case you or I care, a closeup of my sleeping bag.

Thursday 31st: up 7, having watched Starlink trailing across the sky in the night. Decide on a drive up the Col de la Croix de Fer, which connects at the top to Glandon. View from the "plateau" of St Jean d'Arves towards the Aiguilles d'Arves (I'm fairly sure) with less clearly the Goleon to their right (see-also: postcard).

Disappointingly, the nice cafe at the top is not yet open. It is now 8. Drive up to Glandon, because that too has a cafe... which is also shut. Hmpf. But at least I've now been to the top of yesterday's tentatif. Walk around a bit (GPS). There is what I take to be a bizarre sculpture, four square pillars called "Le Mont Blanc", but actually it turns out to be a frame; if you look as your eye is guided, you can see it. View, Glandon towards Croix de Fer, showing yet another shut cafe. Back to Croix de Fer, because it turns out there is a charming collection of walks to do from there; I shall do the "lakes walk" (GPS). General view with cows of the lower lake.

The refuge de l'Etendard is just out of sight to the right; I had coffee+cake. The upper lake is a bit low but makes for some arty shots of its colours on a still day.

Then it turns out you can go up to the Pied du Glacier, with the Pic d'Etendard to the right.

Sadly I didn't realise this so haven't brought crampons or axe. But perhaps it is for the best as it isn't obvious the ground is suitable solo. View of the upper basin, showing people and tracks. The glacier front, falling into the lake.

And not far on the way back, a view back down. It is all very lovely.

And all the better for being an unexpected bonus. Coming back, the Croix de la Fer cafe is open, so stop by. Drive down slowly enjoying the views and the bees.

Down to St Maurice de Maurienne. This, like St Jean, is OK but not as nice as Bourg; the main street is too busy. But that's alright; part of my purpose coming here is to explore, and see if we would want to come here en famille; the answer I think is not. Coffee+icecream, ponder tonight, decide on hotel, which turns out to be the Savoy. It is not inspiring but old-aka-nice inside, and I am not demanding. Dinner the usual bread cheese juice yoghurt from supermarket and a quiet evening.

Friday 1st August: sleep well, off 9 to try the Galibier (GPS; diary), more sensibly this time. Here's my uninspiring but OK room.

More sensibly includes better fueling (four bananas) and more rests lower down, including a coffee at the Col du Telegraphe. From there its a ~5 km descent into Valloire (nice; more Les2Alpes that d'Huez), all very nice but I'll have to climb it coming back, and, of course it increases the average gradient for the rest.

Stop at Plan Lachat for coffee+crepe and refill water. From there it isn't that far to the top but the last bit is grim and I get there just inside 5:40. There are photographers out taking pix of everyone and selling prints. Here I heroically am.

Taken by a nice guy; I then reciprocated. Comparing my time against the KOM (Pog, obvs; his 1:26:49 is about a quarter of mine); and I am 74485 / 75162 of attempts. But, I am pleased with myself anyway. Pog, after all, wasn't pointlessly carrying a kilo's worth of bike lock. A view down the far side towards the "la Grave" or Ecrins side (distantly: Barre des Ecrins; Meije):

And a view back where I've come from:

Soir: comedies. Go to Modane, because I've wanted to see it for ages, but only because it is the terminus of some GR we have a guidebook for; it turns out to be uninteresting, though I may not have been at my best. Head back, since I realise Modane is the "wrong way"; over the Col de la Madelaine from La Chambre. There are camper-vans by the roadside; eventually I realise that the TDF Femmes is coming this way tomorrow; I briefly consider hanging around for that but no. Down, there's a comedy of shut / full campsites and another shut hotel leads me to Hotel Radiana, which is fine. My bedroom. Diary page.

Saturday 2nd: the hotel is really quite grand, and is in some process of restoration. Plaque-re-history.

I'm heading over the Petit St. Bernard into Italy (GPS at the top). Wx is poor, but improving. Originally I'd planned to head for the Gonella, or at least look at getting there, but the Gran Paradiso comes my way somehow - I think there was a leaflet in the Hospice, where I had a coffee - and I decide I could try that. There's another comedy of errors as I attempt to buy food in rural Italy in the Mezzogiorno, before realising that the main road is my saviour; then I go upvalley just past Le Pont and I'm at the car park (where, it turns out, there was a small but tolerable food shop). This is a relief; I had no real idea what I was looking for; I should have known I suppose; the GP is pretty popular and there was bound to be obviousness. I've not booked a place, so I pack including bivvi gear just in case.

Walk up (GPS) in 1:50 (+760 m) despite a considerable amount of pratting around at the start as I try to work out where my head torch is (idiot: it's in your boot); the sign time is 2:30. Carefully photo car so I can check later that I locked it. View from higher of the car park and the camp site. Here's a distant view of the hut, I think about the first you get, as you come over a crest and are nearly there. Closer view. Benvenuti.

I've arrived in the middle of dinner but I have food so that's fine; I get a place in a sort-of annexe, a group of 5 portacabin like cubiods. This is also fine.

Poke around a bit; there's a picture of the route, which is nice for the clueless like me; though as it turns out the inevitable "follow the crowds" will work fine. Meet some English-y types who sound very Novice-y; b'fast is recommended for 4 am so go with that.

Sunday 3rd: up 4, b'fast at table with two Fr; a little chat, mostly in Fr. Off 4:40. I'm not the first; it isn't hard to find the way. GPS.

After the traditional slog up rocks in the darkness, we come to the snow and folks stop to gear up and crampon up. Notice the dog, which made it quite a way up but not to the summit.

And so on up. Fear not, we evade the crevasse zone to the R. Note that the actual summit isn't the lump to the left, but the left end of the rock "comb".

And eventually, to the summit.

Confusingly, that's taken from the "true summit"... or so I thought at the time. Because I knew that the true summit was a bit higher than the "madonna summit". But now I'm not sure it was actually that. Anyway, what I did was to go on a bit, and up some stuff that didn't have any aid. And I couldn't see anything higher. Then I went back to the queues to the "madonna summit".

Everyone else is roped, and most are not that agile, so I try to avoid being too smug, but I also try to avoid falling off; note that there's a cable protecting the face shown above; the "tricky" bit if unroped is the traverse you can't see from here, to get to the descent via the one-way system. And so, after some admiring of the views from the top, bumble on down: nicely over the snow, somewhat less so over the rock. Until the hut heaves into view.

Time for a beer! Photo: me and (why did I take this?) my rucksac. Diary page. I have as much time as I want to rest, so have pesto gnocci and a rest; then head down (GPS), somewhat jarring on the knees. Probably I should then have camped and rested the afternoon but my restless spirit drove me on: supermarket in Courmayeur, then W into Val Veny (which turns out to be the tourist route of the TMB but not I think the route M and I took; perhaps we went to the L via Plan Checrouit. And so to camp, at the Aiguille Noir, just a few km short of Visaille.

Soir: cook pasta; write up; that's about it.

Monday 4th: up 6:30 and decide to stay up. Today is Gonella-day, but as I've read more I've become much less sure I want to even try to go all the way. Skip the unappealling campsite buffet b'fast and head upvalley to what turns out to be the obvious big carpark with a helpful sign clarifying where everything is (obv: that glacial extent is historical; it isn't in the main valley any more). GPS. There's a ~4.5 km walk up a closed-due-to-rockfall-years-ago road, so I do that on the bike; somehow I'd assumed it would be flat but of course it is steep and at one point I have to walk. From the refuge at the roadhead (Cabane de Combal, coffee+croissant), the sign says it is 5:30 to Gonella. Briefly there's pleasant path, but after that we go over the morraine and see a complete wasteland of rubble, with occasional cracks to remind you there's a glacier under there.

There is no path; there are some yellow dots, and a few cairns, but really it was pretty yukky even by my standards. I only got to about 2200 m, since I'd kinda decided that I wasn't going to make the hut, and the crap-covered-glacier didn't look like it was getting any nicer. I also don't feel this would be a great hut to return to; unless perhaps earlier in the season with all this covered in snow. Chamois. I didn't see the hut. And so back to Combal at 2 for a cake. Before I get there: views E upvalley towards the French border.

What now? Ponder. Decide on Mont Blanc tunnel, and after a queue and paying more than I expected (E55)  I am through. But first: goodbye Val Veny. There are plenty of other huts up there that I could have walked to, perhaps I should come back some time, but I'm a bit battered from yesterday - really I should have some rest days - I'm starting to feel the pull of home, and there are tjings to do on the way.

Cafe in out-of-the-way Passy with a fine view of Mont Blanc and work out where to go tonight... decide to head towards La Clusaz, via Megeve - fighting GMaps desire to take the quickest route - and hope for somewhere along the way. And there is, at the Col d'Aravis. This will be my last view of Mont Blanc; there's an aire de camping cars that I can use; kip behind the car. It is lovely up here.

Tuesday 5th: up 6:30 for a wee; stay up; stroll back to the cafes at the pass (GPS); back at the car, set GMaps for Cluny via Annecy and we're off. Get to A early, and to my surprise it is quiet, so I decide to visit. There's a convenient car park by the lake; a little "beach"; and I can swim (GPS).

Initially I thought I ought to leave before it got busy, but it didn't seem to, so I decided to stay for longer, and walked along the lake front to the Old Town (GPS).

The bijou pain was that the cafe I wanted wasn't open when I wanted, so I didn't get to sit with coffee and contemplate the view quite as I'd have liked to; but I do sit and read Montaigne. Diary page.

Then, via regretting not stopping at the head of the lake under plane trees at Nantua, and the apparently-uninteresting Bourg-en-Bresse (but some nice wood), to Macon and the Maison du Bois for coffee (misc sight), then to Cluny.

That isn't the main church. Confusingly, Cluny isn't the place I thought it was, that we visited and stayed at Le Hotel de la Poste et du Lion d'Or, because that of course was Vezelay, where I'll go tomorrow. In fact the rest of this trip rather turns into an off-motorway tour of cathedrals. Anyway, park in a sort of cut-off road off the main road. Find hotel, du Commerce, cheap. Cafe in the main village street for vin rouge. Peace. Soir: to a concert, since it was there. Baroque. Good, but too many encores.

Wednesday 6th: b'fsat good, to Abbaye 9:30 when it opens, E11. It is a big site but the remains of the abbaye are but fragments, the rest is after that. But pleasant to wander around, walks shaded by fruit trees, I have a ripe pear. I sit on an old stone and ponder the passing of time. Lovely. There's a handy guide to principal European cathedrals: how many have you done? I think I have fifteen. Cluny itself is pleasant to wander.

Then off 12 towards Vezelay but via (I cannot resist) Autun. We're in snail country.

So many last judgements, I forget which is which. Fortunately they're geotagged. Vezelay has one too. GPS.

I sit in a cafe in the square admiring the front, writing up, and carefully taking it refelected in my coffee table for fb. There are any number of interesting capitals. Calm, peaceful, deep green shade outside and views over the plain. Onwards!

Head towards Orleans, to the municipal campsite of Checy via a nuclear cathedral. The sun drips down and I end up camping by the riverside. The reception was shut when I got there at 9; so after a little thought I walked in, had a nice shower, and quietly went down to the river, waiting until the late-night strollers and dog walkers had gone before getting my s'bag out.

Thursday 7th: alarm 6 but up 6:45 to avoid outraging public decency, I do have a conscience you know. To Orleans; you can park by the river in the shade of trees. GPS. To a cafe - I struggle to find one open - waiting for cathedral to open at 9. Book ferry: £155. Outrageous. Perhpas I should try booking ahead; but then I'd need to have a plan more than five minutes ahead. Cathedral, with flags. Gorgeous modern stained glass.

And the towers are good. Onwards! Home is calling. Over fields of onions

to Chartres. Cafe to the S, admiring the facade, realising that I can barely remember Orleans, so I scroll through the pix. Realise I will have to skip Rouen to get on the 7 pm ferry. Diary page. GPS. I need to find more time to actually just be in places like this.

Somehow  I didn't quite get a good pic of the cathedral itself (try this or this or this; or the interior stonework). I leave you with this; apart from that it is but a drive home.

2025 / 12 / 01: phew. I've finally finsihed this. Now for all those previous years.