Before we tackled the mountains, we made a brief stop at Cuneo, a lovely city with a special bridge and a historic centre of beautiful houses with arcades, that you can walk along the shops protected from sun, rain and snow.
We were quite sure that the Col de Tende, an important pass to France, would still be closed, due to the devastating storm in 2020 with torrential rain, which had severely damaged the infrastructure on the French side.
But the Colle della Maddelena to the west should be open, therefore we started in that direction. When we came to a turn-off for the Colle della Lombarda, and the signs said “Aperto”, we didn’t hesitate and chose this much more fascinating pass.
The Colle della Lombarda is a road pass in the Maritime Alps that can only be driven in the summer months. Now it was November and the pass was still open! The pass has an altitude of 2,350 m and marks the border between the French department of Alpes-Maritimes and the Italian region of Piemonte. On the way up the valley, we drove through a forest of larch, already yellow to brown. Soon they will have lost all their needles.
The many bunkers and fortifications at the pass bear witness to many conflicts between France and Italy. Blockhouses and barracks were used until the end of the Second World War.
We spent the night directly at the pass and enjoyed the perfect weather. The next day, we started the descent into France, where we were lucky to spot a chamois. Our route took us over many mountain roads, with fascinating valleys and mountain sceneries.
From Isola, we followed the river Tinée down the valley, until our navigation suggested a shortcut to the right to get faster to the valley of the river Var. With our van, we decided to take it and drove a winding road along the mountains. Where the descent to the river Var started, there were suddenly 3 signs: not higher than 2.9m (we are 3m) not wider than 2 m (we are 2.05 without the mirrors) and not heavier than 3 t (we are 3.8 t) As driving all the way back was not enticing, we continued.
A steep road with many narrow hairpins led us down to the river. Overhanging rocks were low, but not too low. The old bridge with wooden beams looked a little scary already from the top. We just fitted through and ignored the moaning and groaning the bridge made. When we reached the other side of the river, we were relieved.
Our next stop will be the Verdon gorge – more soon!