From Vercors to the Alps

The Vercors region definitely feels like the road less travelled and it barely gets a mention in our guidebook. It’s a beautiful region though and despite a period of less than perfect weather (which didn’t last too long) we have very much enjoyed it.

We spent a blustery night in Vassieux en Vercors which is the home of a very informative museum on the French Resistance from WW2, much of which pertained specifically to this area.  The Vercors plateau was a hotbed of resistance, so much so that during the German retreat in 1944 they sent over 10,000 troops to the area, many landing by glider because of the inaccessible landscape, to crush the resistance and prevent them disrupting the withdrawal. Hundreds of resistance fighters and civilian lives were lost and 97% of the town of Vassieux en Vercors was destroyed. In acknowledgement of their great sacrifice the town was honoured by decree in August 1945 as a companionship city of the liberation – a rare honour granted only to four other towns, Paris, Nantes, Grenoble and Ile de Sein. The museum is very interesting and shines a spotlight on a lesser known (at least in the UK) part of the war.

From Vassieux en Vercors we headed down to the little town of Remuzat. The landscape has become distinctly more Mediterranean since leaving the Vercors Mastiff and as we got closer to Remuzat we were driving alongside fields of lavender (albeit pruned back to very neat, straight rows at this time of year). Remuzat is a great location for seeing vultures after they were reintroduced to the area in 1996. Vultures had become extinct in Southern France over 100 years ago as a result of poison laid down to destroy wolves and bears however the re-introduction programme has been very successful and they are now flourishing in a number of locations.

The Cliffs above Remuzat are home to four types of Vulture – Griffon Vultures, Vulture Monks, Egyptian Vultures and Bearded Vultures.

You can see the vultures circling by the cliffs from the town but to get a good view there is a pretty challenging hike up to the top of the cliffs.

This is not a via ferrata but there are ladders and some other areas of protection as you climb very steeply up the cliffs. Once at the top though there are some amazing views and of course the vultures themselves.

On leaving Remuzat we spent a night in the small town of Aspres sur Buech, notable for its clock tower on a hilltop in the middle of town.

We parked in the town Aire and soon after we arrived the local pétanque club arrived and played pétanque right in front of our camper so we pulled out our chairs, poured some glasses of wine and enjoyed the show! It’s good to see how it should be done and mades our attempts seem pretty feeble by comparison.

We wanted to head back into the Alps in order to visit the some of the Southern Alps which we hadn’t been to before so we ended up in the beautiful Ecrins national park on the edge of a town called Pont du Fosse.

We had read online about a great Aire here that was usually quite expensive but had suffered a power failure so was currently free. This is probably in our top fives places to stay, it was absolutely lovely, next to a river, only 500m from town and with private, shaded grassy areas amongst the trees to park up and hang our hammock. We had a few days here to recharge our batteries before heading into the higher Alps.

We were heading up towards Briancon, which is the highest city in France, but on the way we passed the Lac du Serre Poncon. In the hot weather we couldn’t resist checking in to a campsite with lake-side parking just outside the town of Savines le Lac and enjoying a couple of days swimming and relaxing by the beach.

The sunsets across the lake were stunning.

From Serre Poncon it is an easy drive up into the big mountains to the picturesque town of Briancon. The old town of Briancon is centred on a steeply sloping main street which must be precarious in winter.

There are a number of forts in the hills around the town and above the town itself there is a fort on a crag but unfortunately this is closed to visitors at this time of year.

Briancon doesn’t have a great selection of places to stay the night so on leaving we headed 45 minutes down the road to the Col du Lautaret which is on the way up to the famous Col du Galibier.

There is a large area with amazing views just on the Col itself where its possible to park up. The views are of mountains, upland fields and off to one side a collection of small glaciers.

We went for a short walk and saw marmots and a flock of sheep protected by flock guardian dogs who warned us off approaching their charges.

In the evening we were visited by two flock guardian dogs who were very friendly and it was a great opportunity to interact with these working dogs up close. We felt that this was probably a normal evening stop for them as they meandered around the motor-homers preparing their dinners !