Routes des Grandes Alpes

I'm finally catching up with the blog.  This entry is actually from today.  

You might have noticed from our blog heading that we took out the tour of Italy part.   We don't have the time that we thought we would have to go to Italy this year.  Aww.  So today we began our journey through the Routes des Grandes Alpes.

The Routes des Grandes Alpes is a grand journey beginning in the French Riviera in Menton, France, winding through the French Alps, and ending in Interlaken, Switzerland.  From Interlaken, we will take a train up to the Jungfrau Mountain.   We expect the drive to take about four days and along the way, we expect to see many Alpine villages, awe-inspiring roads, and majestic snow capped mountains.

We began our journey in Menton, France

Menton, France along the French Riviera

You can see the foothills of the Routes des Grandes Alpes from Menton

The first foothills were about 15 minutes outside of Menton

The first little village along the way.

Breil Sur Roya

We stopped for lunch in St. Martin Vesubie

There was a little mountain stream of water down the middle of the sidewalk.

Colorful little town.

Saint Saveur de Tinee

Beuil

Stop for photos

We decided to stay in Valberg our first night.

We arrived in Valberg around 3 PM and decided it was too far to go to the next town of Barcellonette since we don't have any hotel reservations and there was availability at a hotel in Valberg.

 Having no hotel reservations along this route could be a little tricky, but so far, the Routes des Grandes Alpes does not seem very busy.  We have seen mostly motorcyclists and Porsches along the way.   The big tourist season probably doesn't begin for another couple of weeks.

There was only one hotel that was open in Valberg, but we easily got a room.   Dan asked at the front desk what there was to do in town and we learned about a hike called "The Planetariam".   We weren't sure what to expect when we began walking the trail.

The trail head

We soon found great views along the way.

We could see the road from places along the way.

What a magnificent hike this was turning out to be. 

It just kept getting better.  This was after only about 30 minutes walking.

My favorite photo of the hike.

Time to head back.  It looked like it might rain.

Time for a photo first.

Almost back to Valberg. 

Back at our hotel.  The entire hike was only 90 minutes door to door.

We are really looking forward to tomorrow where we are headed to Brioncon.  The trip will be a surprise because we don't know whether or not the mountain passes will be open.  But we like adventure.