Grenoble to the High French Alps

Woke up after our first rain, and decided to have an easier day, so kept to a main D road (equivalent to A road) but here, even this is far from what you would recognise as a trunk road. The further up the valley we got, the narrower it became, with very little in the way of barriers at the edge, and steeps drops everywhere. Even so, on two occasions, I found myself being chased uphill by articularted lorries. We were heading for Briancon which was beyond the col on the main road. Got there only to find the road was closed. The alternatives were to go back the way we came, or take the very minor road north in the general direction we wanted to take anyway, so we decided the latter. 

As we climbed the steep hairpins of the road, we could see down to where a landslide had blocked the other road. After a climb of 40 minutes all in 2nd gear, reachung the current snowline, we topped out at 2300m, then had to come all the way down again, from snowline, into rocks, then conifers; then mixed woodland, then finally upland pasures.  We really are making the van work hard. It is fascinating to see a tiny stream disappear under snow, then re-emerge,  and grow from tiny stream to raging torrent by the time we are at the valley floor. The water is at times black with the soil qnd rock  it carries along.