The 15th of August weekend is a busy one in the Chamonix diary, and the blue skies over the valley this morning told us that it was going to be particularly full-on. So we decided to get in the car and get the hell out as fast as possible, heading out of town on a three-country, tourist-evasion loop of Mont Blanc.
The Three Countries Tour is something of a must-do for Chamonix residents and visitors alike. I first learnt of the Three Countries Tour just after I arrived in the valley, when I was working for a tour operator as a rep. Back then it would be a straw-drawing exercise amongst our team to see who would be condemned to sit in a van for five hours with inquisitive, and frequently carsick, clients.
Now that fewer and fewer operators come to Chamonix, the Tour runs less and less, but it's still a brilliant way to see some of the different flanks of Europe's highest mountain. It's run as a bike tour by companies like MBMB and Ride The Alps with great success.
It was with intense pleasure that we pulled out of Chamonix, leaving the white perspex of the camper vans lining the roads in our rearview. We drove up the Col des Montets to Vallorcine and crossed into Switzerland, checking out the absurdly cheap petrol prices as the imposing rocky cliffs of Barberine rose up above us. We filled the car with fuel, and our stomachs with Swiss chocolate, before flying up the Col du Forclaz and swinging down the sunny slopes of the Valais towards Martigny.
Jeremy Clarkson described this road as "one of the most fun in the world", and he's not lying. Even in our little car, the rolling chicanes and bermed hairpins were very exciting. After a few kilometers, we pulled over to buy a punnet of apricots - so ripe & succulent in August - and admire my favourite Alpine panorama, the flat-bottomed Martigny valley from hundreds of metres above.
The radio was playing tyically Swiss, typically inoffensive 1980s soft rock as we passed through the Swiss vineyards - they've not given up, despite not yet producing anything fit to drink from them! As we got to Martigny, it was with Imagination in our ears that we turned right onto the Verbier road, then headed up towards the Col de Grand St Bernard pass. The small and dreary looking towns of the Valais flew past us, the indefinite pronounciation of their names more confusing the higher we climbed. Bovernier, Sembrancher, La Douay, Fornex, Liddes.
The scenery of this pass was a lot more mellow than the dramatic lines we're used to seeing in Chamonix; instead, it's undulating, politely gentle and neutral until you enter the high country of glaciers and grey skies and pine forests, and of grassy scrub that reveals the gunmetal slate that all of this sits on. The Col de Grand St Bernard is like the Canadian Rockies, just with fewer trucks.
Up to the pass itself, getting on for 2500m now, and past the messy base lodge of the Super St Bernard winter ski area. The road forked and we turned right, the cheapskates inside us easily justifying the views of the Col route over the toll of the tunnel. As we crossed into Italy the towns suddenly became as ancient as the road surface, and it was with a mixture of relief and fascination that we arrived in Aosta in one piece. A slice of pizza and a bag of fresh pasta later, we were on the road back towards the Mont Blanc tunnel, then Chamonix and home.
200km, 8 hours, 500g of ravioli, no carsick clients and two big smiles. The Three Countries Tour - you should give it a try sometime.
