This stage of the GR5 is mainly downhill from the ski village of Montegenèvre to Briançon. The route hikes through beautiful pine forests and passes by the great Fort Dauphin and the beautiful Pont d'Asfelt. The route then passes through the center of Briançon and hikes from there to the campsite just below the city.
It took some getting used to, being near a city again for the past few days, but we made good use of it. A day to do some much needed (gear) shopping, check out Briançon and a few days to update the digital world a bit again. But it's wonderful to get up early again this morning to hike and arrive in Montgenèvre by bus. Today is an easy stage: we'll walk about 15 kilometers with just a daypack and will almost exclusively descend.
We walk through the center of the ski village where we hoped to find a boulangerie that is open, but really everything is closed. Too bad... But we have enough, so we won't starve.
Leaving the village, we cross the main road, which we crossed earlier by bus, and walk along a small path into the woods. It's still cool and damp and there are already quite a few mushrooms along the path. We really are in the transition to a new season. Hope it'll be a while before the weather really turns, because we still have a fair bit to go through the Alps.
The kilometers go quickly through the beautiful forests, especially since we don't have heavy backpacks on it feels like a luxury hike. And by now we are well used to walking with poles. Up until the Jura, it still felt a little uncomfortable to walk with them, but now we don't know any different and besides being a lot faster and smoother, it's also a bit safer. So on a walk like today, they just come along too.
The walk goes so smoothly that after only 1.5 hours we are already halfway through the hike and not much later we reach Fort Dauphin, a defensive fortress that along with 4 other forts protected the valley of Briançon from Italian troops. The forts date from the 18th century and are strategically positioned on mountain peaks surrounding the valley. They are all large structures and from here you can see them all. A bus driver told us that the forts are connected by underground corridor systems. Those must be really deep tunnels, since the ravines between the forts look deep as well.
We descend a little further to the edge of town and cross the Durance River via the Pont d'Asfeld bridge, also from 1,700. Briançon is an old town with a lot of history, and it shows. By now we have arrived in the city and the route takes us past old buildings from the old, upper part to the new, lower part of town. The latter part of town is a little less picturesque, but it's here that most of the stores are located. A little outside the city, we did some quick shopping in a giant supermarket as we only know from France. At a boulangerie near the campground we can still buy chausson aux pommes and around 2 o'clock we are back sitting in front of our tent, having coffee and pastries. Back where we left this morning. But it feels good to have 'really' arrived on foot now.
What a beautiful stretch of mountains we have behind us, truly magnificent. We still have a good 300 kilometers to go to the coast, mainly through the Queyras and the Mercantour. And we're super curious to find out what these areas will be like!
