At an altitude of 1326 m, Briancon is the highest
city in the European Union. Situated above the confluence of four strategic
valleys near the Italian border, the town was always of huge military
significance and was heavily fortified against the Austrians in the late 1600’s
by (my hero) Sebastien Le Plestre de Vauban.
Following our breakfast of coffee and croissants in
a cosy little boulangerie, we spent the morning scrambling around the ramparts
and back streets of the upper town. We had our baguette and beer lunch sitting
in the sunshine, high above the town.
As with all of Vauban’s works, Briancon is best seen
from above. A curious observation was the variation in roofing materials used
in the upper town - ribbed galvanised tin panels, (mostly rusty) corrugated
iron and rather unique, long wooden shingles.
On what was otherwise a very fun road on which to
drive with a bit of brio, we encountered the minor hazard of a great number of
firemen-cyclists spread out on a charity cycle ride. Arriving at the Col de
Vars, altitude 2109 m, we came upon a lunar landscape where little seemed to
grow or survive the constant landslides of the unstable blue/black shale substrate.
Further down the mountain we came across another other-worldly sight of the
“capped columns”
Again Ross found another interesting detour, up the
Ubaye valley. On the way, we passed through the tiny hamlet of Grande Serenne.
I can’t imagine the size of Petite Serenne. It was interesting that corrugated
iron appeared to be the unique roofing material. We reached our goal, an
amazing little stone bridge, perched 108 m above the river bed - the 130 year
old Pont du Chatelet.
We found a campsite with much needed laundry
facilities outside Barcelonnette, a pretty town on the banks of the Ubaye River.
It has a peculiar claim to fame as the source of a wave of emigration to Mexico
between 1850 and 1950. Some of the returned émigrés have built very substantial
Mexican colonial style villas on the edge of town. We had an enjoyable dinner
of tapas in a restaurant next to a large table of English speaking tourists.
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