Col du Mont-Cenis - Italy/France

One single road that switches character more often than there are Bond actors.

4y ago
2.6K

The second border-road on TSR, this time between Italy and France. And this time the italian side can actually (legally) be enjoyed, compared to Great St. Bernard. Weather was the worst for filming of the whole alpine-roadtrip, therefor I have to excuse the lack of any aerial-footage for this one. The strong wind and occasional drops from the sky were no nice environment for my drone.

I also ran into a big cloud at the top (actually twice) and decided to restart filming for the drivelapse down in the valley. That's the reason there is a cut in the clip and you'll see the climb up from france followed by the climb up from italy.

But this is one hell of a schizophrenic road! The first few kilometers in france feel, for lack of better adjective, somewhat "canadian". Big pines are next to you, the road is wide and you get incredible views into the valley. It creates a true feeling of being small in a big world, as you can see so much and far to villages and mountains across the deep deep valley.

At the top the character changes completely. No more trees, no more super far-views. But instead a big hydro-dam-lake at which steep coast the roads sneaks across the pass-height. You have a great view onto the lake, surrounding mountains and the green fields laying over everything. Here is also the point where you cross the border.

Then, decending on italian soil, you enter a series of switchbacks, where the road get's slightly narrower and is guarded by this unique series of chained-up rocks at the cliffs edge. Once you're through that a step-valley follows, where the road straightens completely and allows you to take in the view. Then the path snugs it's way very close to a very steep mountain-side, to bring you down to the real valley. Once again you have the feeling of being very high up with far far view, but with completely different scenery than on the french side. The vegetation is much more lush, greener and denser. And it is considerably hotter, at least it was when I visited.

After you leave the direct valley-view and enter into the first little village, you will now follow a switching path down through a thick forest of not-pine-trees. But shortly before you reach rock bottom, the character changes one last time to clear away most of the trees and give way to amazing views all the way down to the small city of Susa.

This one is rarely known and is no major traffic link (there is a tunnel for that closeby). This means traffic should never be unbareable and it's certainly worth a visit.

Cheers, 7 Skyrex

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