We went down to the small city of "les Contamines", the next stop is Nant-Borrant, a small chalet located in the meadows  in the center of the image above. On the top left, the Bonhomme pass is clearly visible.

Nant Borrant - refuge Roselend

We first climbed the col du Bonhomme 2329 m.

Looking behind, climb to Bonhomme pass (2329 m) , the next pass is the Croix du Bonhomme, (2483 m) clearly visible in the center of the image below.

Map of second part. Col du Bonhomme to Modane [Top of page]

Picture below is reprint from the Topo-guide® “La Vanoise”, réf.530,  © Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre, 14, rue Riquet, 75019 PARIS, Tél. : 01.44.89.93.93 or www.ffrandonnee.fr”. Reprint with authorisation.
GR® is trade mark of the french federation of trekking (Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre), for any question contact www.ffrandonnee.fr.

Roselend - Chalet de la Balme - Pesey Nancroix - Tignes

At col de Bresson (2469 m) looking NE  to the "refuge de Presset" on the left of the path to the chalet de la Balme (2009 m). After the chalet de La Balme, a long descent to brought us to Bellentre (776 m) from where we had to follow an uninterested path to the entry of the Vanoise national Park. After a night at the Chalet du Rosuel, we start to climb until we reached the beautiful  plateau La Grassaz (about 2300 m). The path continues flat to the col du Palet (2652 m) above Tignes (2093 m). The contact with civilisation was terrible: noise, traffic, pollution and many other questionable activities in place to try to entertain idel people, most of them being too lazy to walk a little bit away from the city.   

After Tignes, we climbed to the Leisse pass, one of the highest in french GR's: 2758 m. Just after the little lake below is the refuge de la Leisse, lovely place to hide and good spot to eat and rest. We were half-way to l'Arpont.

Tignes - refue de l'Arpont [Top of page]

After the refuge de la Leisse (2487 m) the path follow a kind of balcony below the Grande Motte (3130 m) over the valley of  Lanslevillard to the refuge de l'Arpont (2309 m). The latter was crowded because too easily reached from the Valley. In consequence of that, many people climb 2 hours and spend a night in the refuge to have some taste of mountaineering. Difficult for thoselike us, who spent 8:30 hours walking to get there. Below a view of the path to l'Arpont, beautiful look over the Dent Parrachée at the left.

p>Leaving the refuge we start to descent to the small village of Termignon down the valley  and hitch hiked until Modane (1066 m).

Map of third part: Modane - Briançon - St Etienne de Tinée [Top of page]

Picture below is reprint from the Topo-guide® “La grande traversée des Alpes”, réf.531, © Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre, 14, rue Riquet, 75019 PARIS, Tél. : 01.44.89.93.93 or www.ffrandonnee.fr”. Reprint with authorisation.
GR® is trade mark of the french federation of trekking (Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre), for any question contact www.ffrandonnee.fr.

Modane - Mt Thabor - Nevache Briançon [Top of page]

From Modane we shared a taxi to save time on a boring road to the start of the col de la Vallée Etroite (2434 m), just  beside the magnificent Mont Thabor 3178 m. Then we reached the italian refuge of Tre Alpini (beside the road below) where we had good italian meal (polenta). This gave us energy enough to start the next pass "col des Thures (2194 m) from which we took the picture below, looking back to the Mt Thabor.

From Briançon we reached the col des Ayes 2477 m and slept in Arvieux in a little hotel on the other side.

Briançon - Château Queyras - Ceillac [Top of page]

The next day was short (3:30 only) and we can rest somewhat at Chateau Queyras. The next dayy we passed the Col Fromage (Cheese Pass 2301 m) to the beautiful village of Ceillac 1639 m. From Ceillac, we started a long walk to the Lake of Saint Anne and to the col Girardin (2700 m), whose last part is pretty steep as seen in picture below.

From the top, a beautiful view over the massif de Ecrins and the Meige on the left.  Due to an exceptional visibility, we could see the top of Mt Blanc at a distance of about 135 km, the place we started from 11 days ago. The village of Ceillac can be seen in the lower right corner.

Ceillac - refuge CAF Maljasset - Larche [Top of page]

A steep descent brought us to the lovely refuge of Maljasset. The owner helped us the next day to

reach Fouillouse and to avoid an uninterested path along the road down the valley that can be see below.

 

From Fouillouse we climbed to the  col de Vallonnet 2524 m and col de Mallemort 2558 m before to descent down to Larche (below), the entry point to the Mercantour national Park.

Larche  - Bouzeyas - St Etienne de Tinée [Top of page]

From Larche we climbed to the impressive Pas de la Cavale, a kind of opening in the ridge with a very steep descent, the GR sign is clearly visible at th right of the picture. The plateau in front is just above the next refuge: Bouzeyas.

Below a look back to Bouzeyas in mist of the early morning, the pas de la Cavale can be seen at the right of the picture, like a hole in the cliff.

To St Dalmas-Le-Selvage (picture), a lovely village before St Etienne de Tinée, our next stop.

Map of last part: Larch to Nice [Top of page]

Picture below is reprint from the Topo-guide® “Tinée Vésubie : Vallé des Merveilles”, réf.507, © Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre, 14, rue Riquet, 75019 PARIS, Tél. : 01.44.89.93.93 or www.ffrandonnee.fr”. Reprint with authorisation.
GR® is trade mark of the french federation of trekking (Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre), for any question contact www.ffrandonnee.fr.

St Sauveur de Tinée St Dalmas de Valdeblore - Utelle [Top of page]

From St Etienne de Tinée we climbed to the ski resort of Auron (1602 m), passed the  col du Blainon and arrived at the most lovely refuge we have ever seen: Roya (1500 m). From there we climbed over pastures with lots of sheep (and giant dogs...), followed the winding path over rounded tops of hills to reach Vacherie de Roure (1883 m).

To Vacherie de Roure in fog. Cold and rainy day, the only of the whole trip.

From Vacherie de Roure we could feel the sea was not far away as we climbed to St Dalmas Valdeblore.

Starting beside the church above, this morning was a special one, after a tough climb to le Caïre Gros (1906 m) we could see the Mediterranean sea for the first time after 18 days of walk. This day was also special, it was the longest of the trek: 9:40 of walk to reach the Brec d'Utelle, no chance to stop before the hotel. We went to the shower, rest and then without having taken the advantage of the swimming pool; too tired  ! Below: Leaving Utelle in early morning.

Down in the valley and up again in the suburbs of Levens, we took a taxi (20') to reach Aspremont, this saved us hours of walk in the less interesting part of the GR 5. Once at Aspremont the lovely hotel and good cooking helped to forget this step. Leaving Aspremont we looked back to the small village , the Mt Blanc was now quite far away.

Utelle - Aspremont - Nice [Top of page]

The last step to Nice was still interesting through olive trees and gardens over Nice.

 Finally we crossed Nice during the market day and arrived to the beach where we removes our shoes for the last time and stoppped our 21 days walk. Total distance was close to 400 km and we walked an average of 6:40 H per day. Short day 3:30 and longest 9:40.

Here the sign theat indicates the end of this trip, actually the path starts in Netherlands and links Amsterdam to Nice (1200 km) through Luxembours and Belgium. Some people did it, we even met them !