Back to Briancon via Alpine passes

Megeve behind us we took the alpine passes to Briancon instead of the main road. This turned out to be a great decision as we followed the popular Tour De France route over the Col Du Telegraphe & the infamous Col Du Galibier at around 3000 metres. There were literally thousands of cyclists on these passes. I could not have made it a hundredth of the way up & on the downhill side they were passing us at at least double our speed. We had a picnic lunch on the mountainside about 5k below the summit of Col Du Galibier.
We passed the memorial stone of a TDF cyclist killed on the decent in the past, quite sobering but not surprising.
As there is no hope of finding enough superlatives to describe this place I won't even try.
Back in Briancon now, typing this on the verandah of our unit at 10 pm, the half moon has just risen over the mountain our unit overlooks. I think I am starting to really get used to this & find it more enjoyable each day.

Tomorrow we head down to Chorges to watch the TDF individual time trial.

Driving up Col Du Telegraphe.

Pano shot half way up Col Du Galibier. (Lunch stop)

View from our lunch rock, the switchback road coming up the col.

Finished lunch.

Having lunch.

View south from the col.

Cyclist working hard at 10000ft

As we descend, someone else struggles up.

Very nice

Back in France, no toilets, Yvonne returns from a stop au nature.

Journey to Megeve, France

Today we sadly left our lovely German village (Auf Wiedersehen) & proceeded to drive over the border & back into Northern Switzerland. Our goal today was a 280 k drive from north to the south of Switzerland & finish up just over the border in western France at Chaminox & due to the perfect Swiss roads we arrived in southern Switzerland at Martigny, a couple of hours ahead of schedule, even with stops included.
We had intended to drive past the Matterhorn which is just nearby, but the logistics were far too complicated & even though the weather was fine, the tops of the surrounding 4000 metre peaks were hidden in cloud & so the Matterhorn would have been obscured anyway.
During the trip south we skirted between & around the major cities of Zurich, Berne, Basel & Geneva & drove high above the magnificent Lake Geneva. The entire North West of Switzerland seems to form 1 big metropolis. I guess that is because that is the area that doesn't have enormous mountains.
From Martigny we turned West & climbed back up into the southern Alps (I will never get sick of the Alps), & drove through the mountain passes to Chaminox  France at the base of Mont Blanc, with its enormous glacier & ice fall towering over the town. Following a short stay in Chaminox we decided it was far too busy & touristy for us & drove further into the mountains to Megeve, where we found a lovely B & B just on the edge of the village. Finding a suitable home in the evenings is always the most stressful part of the day.
As we had a great run today & went a little further than planned we will have a very easy drive into Briancon tomorrow (our home base from 2 weeks ago).

An old castle & vinyards overlooks Martigny as we begin to climb back into the Alps.

A final photo of  Martigny in the valley below as we begin our climb proper into the Alps.

The face of the glacier over Chaminox.

A short break in the valley in Martigny.

The glacier & ice fall over Chaminox.

One of many old railway bridges still in use, with the road going underneath.

Swiss roads

The Swiss lowlands. (A relative term)