Maljasset to Larche: E2 Day 197

A long day crossing two Cols and passing military fortifications from 1940.

Thankfully my tent was not disturbed while I went for dinner last night. I was seated with a French group of five (a little chalkboard on each table tells you where to sit at these refuges). After exchanging where we were going with one who spoke English, he asked which was the best part of the GR5 that I had walked to date. I replied it was all beautiful, although everyday was similar. You climb up through forest to Alpine meadows and a pass, then you descend the other side. That was not the answer he was looking for, although his partner seemed to agree with me. After breakfast and the use of the refuge's clean, modern toilets, my walk began with a pleasant trip down the valley, sometimes on the road, often beside the river which raced down the mountain. I happened across two chapels on my route in settlements of old buildings, one dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, and the other to St Antonine.

Morning view.

The GR5 left the valley on a road which crossed a very deep gorge. A stone, arched bridge crossed the small gap between two rock faces, above the river a long way below. There was then a short tunnel. After that the GR5 left the road for a steep climb through woodland to the village of Fouillouse. Here there was a grocers which served me a Coke and ice cream, very welcome in the heat. I also bought two apples to make a little progress towards my five a day.

Cafe and grocers in Fouillouse.

Beyond the village I continued on the path, always heading upward, leaving the trees behind to reach the first pass or Col. Although there were only a few people on the trail today, we kept passing each other as either I stopped or they stopped for some reason. This was an area of action on 1940, when the French were defending their country from the Italians. I passed a Maginot style bunker bristling with turrets, and before the second pass a more substantial building. The ruin had an eerie, Beau Geste feel. Entering the gates between what may once have been gun ports I had a brief glance around the empty square, lined with largely ruined rooms, then left. As I followed the path up the back wall of the hanging valley, I looked down on the fort from above and saw a man in grey emerge from one of the ruined rooms. 

Baraquements de Viraysse, army barracks built in 1889 and occupied until 1940.

Above the pass, on a mountain top, there were the ruins of another fort, although I was not going to spend the effort to visit it. Near the end of my walk, there were French and EU flags at one of the advanced posts of the French defence from 1940. The descent from the second pass, the Col de Mallemort, required the GR5 to drop some 900 metres in just a few kilometres. To do so the path writhed down the crumbly mountainside in a succession of loops down steep drops. Footing could be difficult on the gravelly surface. Larche was visible for much of the descent, tantalizing close, yet a long way down. On eventually arriving at the village I took a more gentle road down to the campsite. Too late to order an evening meal I settled for a cheese baguette and my second ice cream of the day.

The winding path down from the Col de Mallemort.