We have arrived late at night before so in the morning we want to explore a bit the small village in which we are staying. The air is crisp and fresh, a welcome change versus the relentless oven like heat of Morocco. Even the views from our room are expansive we can see far into the valley surrounding our inn.
It feels like most of the action in this town is happening in the winter as it seems there is a lot of skiing in the area but today it is really quiet with people even eating in the street, something that we haven’t seen in quite some time.
And then it is time to make our way north through the Alps towards Briancon. We plan to stop a few times to hike and to sightsee along the way. The route is quite scenic and ruins and cliffs are abundant along the way.
We make our way slowly towards the Mercantour National Park where we will spend most of the day. And we go slowly both because the switchbacks are quite serious and because we stop quite often to enjoy the views and find geocaches.
On the way there are lots of picturesque hamlets, small villages and towns. We stop a few times to take photos especially around Saint-Martin-Vésubie with its beautiful houses.
In fact many houses here look like castles or have multiple floors, likely it helps with keeping the snow and cold out.
We make a side trip to Boreon to see the Boreon waterfall and also to hike to a more remote geocache in the Mercantour National Park.
The hike that we choose is relatively short but gives us a good idea of the beauty of this area of the National Park. It is quite a scenic uphill hike with some nice views of the cliffs and mountains around us. No chamois unfortunately but at least we find the cache before returning to the car.
And then we continue on north losing count of switchbacks, beautiful views and waterfalls as we make our way towards Col de la Bonette and the high alpine part of our trip through the Alps.
