Day 41: Orsières To Bourg Saint-Pierre (1)

A last look back at Orsières. The early morning sun is just starting to brighten the slopes, but most of the village still remains in shadow. 

I had gained an altitude of 900 m, but still had 1600 m to climb over the next two days.

It was a fantastic day's walking through wonderful panoramas: grey, bare-topped mountains with pine-clad lower slopes, snowy peaks, deep valleys, rushing streams and rivers. The temperatures were typical mountain temperatures — very hot in the sun, but quite cool in the shade. 

Doll's house chalet (with flag!).

I walked through the hamlets of Montatuay . . .

. . . and Fornex . . .

. . . climbing higher and higher above the river Dranse.

Distant, snow-patched mountains urged me on . . .

The Via Francigena is signed much more widely and efficiently here. Well, of course — this is Switzerland!

I crossed a bridge high over a gorge — the stream water was now much clearer, and sparkling, rather than a dull milky green — and returned to the valley floor. This is the village of Dranse . . .

. . . comprising the familiar short-spired church and chalet-style houses with overhanging roofs . . . 

It was a tiring route with plenty of ups and downs. Here I'm climbing again — up a switchback road from Dranse . . .

. . . to Liddes, where I sat on the step of this church door to eat my picnic lunch . . . 

. . . of bread (soft on the inside and crusty on the outside with sprinkled grains and seeds), Emmental cheese, red wine (left over from the night before), pumpernickel and lightly-smoked prosciutto. Could any outdoor lunch be better? — particularly with such a grandstand view of the mountains.