8/26 Montgenevre to Briancon

An easy day for sure. We left at 10 and arrived in Briancon in about 2.5 hours of downhill walking. It's all in the woods and nothing special till Briancon. There are some views through the trees of distant forts, and a bunker is passed. Really could have done it as part of the previous day, but this gave us extra time to explore by staying in the old city. Alter lunch we did just that by a self guided tour of the Vauban fort. This famous military engenineer was given a free hand to fortify an amazing number of places across France and there is a genre of touring to see his works. Briancon has the fort above the old walked city. But there are forts above it to protect it from above. And then higher forts were built to protect those and so forth. Several of these others were glimpsed while more are lost to view in the heights. The city fort is a maze of long steep staircases somewhat vertiginously tunneled through the rock. No handrails either. The old City Vauban is on steep cobblestone streets with a curved trough with running water down the middle. It probably carried other things back in the day. The curving narrow streets and colorful buildings were quite picturesque and the place was crawling with tourists and the shops are oriented to this. The cathedral is beautiful with a huge sundial - sundials are more prominent as we head south. The architecture the cathedral suggests southern influences as well. When the GR5 arrives at the town emerging from the forest to cross the chasm via a massive arched stone bridge at Point d'Asfeld. Overall, Briancon is an interesting place and it would have been interesting to climb up to the surrounding forts on a free day.
We dined at the hotel restaurant and had grilled lamb and beef which we had not had for sometime. The chocolate ice cream with a touch of lavender was amazing!