I've just finished bathing myself and washing my clothes so I let the heater do the drying and decide to walk the village of Valmeinier since weather seems to postpone rain. It's a cute little skiers nest with nice houses like this:
I must admit some houses have quite inspired decorative details:
Just a few steps away from my door I find a small monument from Europe's blood stained history:
I wonder what's the point in monuments and history lessons since people keep doing the same mistakes over and over again. Was this dog sharing the same question while staring from the window rather moody at the people passing by?
Here's the local climb wall:
Pools with view to the Alps. Do the kids inside them realise how lucky they are? Probably not:
I return to cook something and see how the weather will dictate my plans for tomorrow. The cons of being in gorgeous areas - so much to see!
Next day at Valmeinier is much worse giving a weird sense of heavy winter in the heart of summer (early August let me remind you). Alps are notoriously generous bad weather wise on any month of the summer. This forces me to follow the forecast on a bunch of sites every few minutes looking desperately for any chance I could do this 200+ km of the initial optimistic loop plan. When you have lots of km ahead above 2000 meters the last thing you need is a thunder on your face and this day unfortunately offers lots of them. Needless to say how joyful it is to ride those hairpins when rain turns them to rivers. The dense low clouds covering the slopes make them look as if they are on fire. Impressive:
Not impressed? Here's my summer view out of my door:
At some point I see that weather coming from the West was OKish so I decide to head this way instead of East as initially planned. After the first km I face fog just like the picture above. When it clears up though I have an amazing contrast in the sky between the clear blue of the West side and the dark clouds above my head. First stop at Montvernier intending to do this almost absolutely vertical slope there which makes the road among the most winding and narrow ones ever. Weather is bad enough to keep the traffic low there which is very welcome as its hairpins can barely fit a medium sized vehicle. Obviously a good chance for some pictures:
See how steep it is:
View at the top of Montverneir:
I go down the same road to continue West and then North to ride up to Pussy. Yes, that's how French decided to name this place. Fuck yeah! Literally :) As I go up the next mountain weather gets aggressive again. As soon as I reach a kinda short but open straight I stop to have a better look on the weather. Dense rainy clouds ahead. Knowing that the next pass is above 2000m I decide not to risk it. Here at 1200m conditions are already not good enough - who knows what was going on up there. I admit I loose and sadly make a U turn. After a few km out of the clouds I take this image:
Back to Valmeinier, Pussy can wait till another day. I will do a North deviation tomorrow on my way to Milano in order to do Val d'Isere that weather doesn't allow me now. Long deviation but it's a crime to leave such places unseen. Besides, you have the little St. Bernard pass waiting for you as well as the Aosta valley in Italy to ease your pain.
Some more rain on the way back and I return at Valmeinier half happy. This village is a classic ski destination in winter therefore there's various shops with ski gear. Obviously I skip them and go straight to the mini market to do some shopping for my stomach because I wasn't patient (or happy if you prefer) enough to cook.
Here's my food enjoying its last view before the battle against my hunger:
Enjoy the ride of the day:
See you on the next part!