My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
Today we drove south, back out of the Vésubie Valley, and then west into Provence. We are staying at a wonderful prototypical Provençal country gite, Mas Tulipe de Soie.
For dinner we drove into Sisteron and had a wonderful meal at A était une fois …
Tomorrow will be a busy day. We plan to drive to Lyon,turn in the rental car and catch the train to Paris.
Saint Martin Vésubie where we are staying in France’s Alpes-Maritimes department had devastating floods in October of 2020. The Vésubie River was a few meters wide when we saw it today, but during the flood it was 180 meters wide. The pictures of the devastation that you can see online are pretty amazing.
Today we drove along the river up into the Mercantour National park to do a hike. Every bridge had either been replaced or was being replaced. The river must have just roared out of the mountains. The wide area of devastation is impressive. if you are interested the pictures here and here are amazing.
We did the Circuit du Cavalier hike from AllTrails. It was 4 miles with almost 1300 feet of elevation gain. We only saw one other person on the whole hike. it was lightly misting and the skies were grey for most of the hike but it was still beautiful and a wonderful hike.
For dinner we had pizza at Restaurant L’Embuscade.
Today we drove south out of the Italian Alps to the coast, then west into France, and then north into French Alps to the town of Saint Martin Vésubie. Saint Martin Vesubie is on the edge of Mercantour National Park.
The last part of the route was through the Vésubie River Valley. The road through the canyons and along the river was stunning
We stopped at a boulangerie in Lantosque for pastries and coffee in mid afternoon.
We are staying at Pure Montagne Resort and Spa.
For dinner we walked down from the hotel into the village to a wonderful Bistro.
It was an absolutely fabulous meal.
We really like this area of the Piedmont region of Italy where we are staying. It is absolutely beautiful and there aren’t many tourists. Today we went on an almost 7 mile loop hike starting not far from where we are staying.
The first part of the hike was all on country roads that had all been paved at some point. The views were stunning. We only saw one car in the first 3 miles.
About half way through the hike we came to a little church, Church of San Rocco. It was originally built to ask protection from the plague epidemic and has a date of 1631 over the door. The key was in the lock of the door and we were able to go in.
From the church we climbed to the highest point in the province. Then we started back down towards our car. The trail was horrible. It really overgrown and at times it was muddy and very uneven.
But eventually we made it. We felt very proud of ourselves and had a picnic on the terrace when we got back to the hotel. We even had a nice talk with the owner of the winery where we are staying.
For dinner we went to Caffe’ Ristorante Della Posta in nearby Olmo Gentile. We had one of the best meals we have had in Italy with lots of Piedmont specialties.
Today we moved farther south in Italy. For the next 2 nights we will be at Cascina Bertolotto Wine Resort in the southern Piedmont region of Italy.
For most of our drive today we were on motorway but, we didn’t want to arrive before we could check in so for the last twenty miles or so we drove on country roads.
We stopped at Torre di Vengore, a fourteenth century feudal watch tower. Today is Liberation Day in Italy, celebrating the end of World War II in Italy. There were lots of people picnicking. We could see the Alps and Mount Blanc from the hill.
Then we went to the nearby hilltop town of Roccaverano and looked around a bit. Then we made dinner reservations at Osteria Bramonte a restaurant recommended by our hotel.
When we got to our hotel we had a picnic lunch on the terrace overlooking the vineyards.
About 7:45 we drove back to Roccaverano and had a great dinner.
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