As could be read in part I, we lodged in Hotel la Vieile Poste in Lanslebourg-Mont Cenis. It’s a small but fine hotel with two young owners who, despite having little knowledge about the German language, didn’t mind trying to understand the questions from the non-French speaking participants in our group. The rooms were simple but tidy and equipped with all the basic needs. So all in all, a pleasant place to stay.
During the advance planning of this year’s route, I found a few web logs that thoroughly describe almost every pass within the entire Alps. Interesting is that especially bicyclist know the existence of a few passes that are not indicated on road-maps, but are interesting for car-and motorbike owners as well. During dinner on the eve before, we agreed that Hermann, Konstantin and Dominik would take a thirty minute lead time to explore the second Col, the Colle delle Finestre (2176mtr) towards Sestriere. The conclusions from that reconnaissance-trip would then be used for a final decision which would be made after the arrival of the second group in Susa. After having breakfast and completing the usual formalities, the first group left at 8.00AM towards Col du Mont Cenis (2084mtr). The second group left roughly half an hour later.
Before starting with the forty-three kilometer long Col de Mont Cenis_, we used the opportunity to fuel the cars at the nearby petrol station in Lanslebourg. This allowed us to drive until late afternoon without worrying about the Siesta that often affects opening times of petrol stations in the smaller communities. Beginning just outside the centre of Lanslebourg, this Col ascends at a continuous rate of roughly eight to ten percent, which is ideal from a warm-up perspective as the engines reach their operating temperatures within minutes. Eventually, after all the engines were properly warmed, the glorious soundtrack of six S38 engines echoed through the valley of Lanslebourg-Mont Cenis.
The northern (French) face of this Col is extremely well constructed with two wide lanes and large-radius hairpins, allowing one to play around with the cars balance without worrying about hitting certain ‘objects’ near the road. Unlike many other passes_ it is easy to reach or exceed the legal speed limit on this Col, which you can generally get away with, provided one follows a few basic rules. However, the hotel owner in Lanslebourg warned us about regular speed-traps on the Italian side, were most parts are limited to a speed limit of sixty kilometers per hour. After roughly eight kilometers, we entered a high alpine valley which is dominated by a huge hydro-reservoir which may be one of the largest high Alpine reservoirs in the Alps. The road itself is located alongside its eastern shores, roughly between 50mtr and 100mtr above the water-surface.
Once in Italy, on the south side of the lake, the road narrows significantly before it descends on the south-eastern side of the dam. The valley narrows and after entering the forests, the road continues towards Susa, a distance of thirty-three kilometers. Even though the speed limit outside the villages is 90km/h, the vast majority of other drivers had trouble reaching even fifty. Not so much of a problem, if not overtaking is prohibited on most parts of this Col. With the warning of the hotel owner still in mind, we maintained a careful approach and made sure that when we passed other cars we did so within the _limits. During the last ten kilometers of this Col, we drove through a series of small villages before arriving in Susa, a mid sized city west_ of Turin.
For some reason, Martin and Tobias lost track of Andy and Oliver and me in the centre of Susa were I was searching for road directions towards Meana di Susa and / or the Colle delle Finestre. This turned out to be easier then expected, as we found the right intersection almost immediately. To allow the others to find us we stopped for a brief moment, while I called Hermann who, if everything worked out as planned, should by now know if this partially unpaved Col could be driven. This turned out to be the case, and after the second group was complete we resumed driving towards Meana di Susa. Officially, the Colle delle Finestre (2176mtr) is prohibited for car-and motorcycles during the last unpaved nine kilometers. Although there is a road sign that implicates some limitations, it was rather faded and for the same reason, I interpreted it to be another unclear instruction. Furthermore, the Italians don’t seem to take this very seriously either as I_ read a few reports about locals driving up the pass on the north side for daytrips.
The road towards the Colle delle Finestre is narrow, very narrow, and resembles_ the dramatic south side of the Passo di Gavia (2621mtr) in Lombardia. The countless hair-pins are extremely sharp, requiring a first gear approach, but even then one can’t always see the exit of the hairpin! The first ten kilometers of paved road are completely hidden by trees and other dense vegetation. Other then a few farmers, land-owners and bicyclists coming from or driving to their properties high up in the mountains, there isn’t much traffic. That may be just as well since the abyss on the left is steep and not protected with Armco fencing at all. The road is so narrow, that even when approaching a single bicyclist, there isn’t always enough room to pass. The asphalt road stops after roughly ten kilometers, after which a gravel road continues to the pass-height. From this point on cars and motorcycles are ‘officially’ prohibited from entering this remote area, where apart from two cars and a motorcycle we only spotted one high alpine farm, one caravan and an abandoned fortress at the pass height.
After a few kilometers the trees become lower and further apart, and eventually one gets a clear view onto the valley that ends at the pass height. The gravel road itself is relatively smooth and lacks large rocks or other debris, as can be found on for instance the Assietta trail a bit further south. Furthermore I do not have any reason to doubt that the driving conditions are relatively stable, so this section poses no real problem.
During the last two kilometers, the road makes one large ascent alongside the steep slopes that mark the end of the valley. Especially the last two hairpins are narrow and can only be completed with an approach that is as wide as possible. We reached the pass-height with the fortress at roughly 10.30AM, roughly thirty minutes behind the first group.
To allow the organization of the Giro d’Italia to include the Colle delle Finestre in 2005, its south side has been paved with asphalt only a few years ago. Given the fact that the north side still is unpaved, I assume that either the budget didn’t allow the entire Col to be upgraded or there simply wasn’t enough time and that workers just leveled out the gravel on its north side to allow a relatively safe descend.
We took a sightseeing stop at the Colle delle Finestre for about fifteen minutes after which we resumed driving towards Sestriere. Thanks to the excellent road surface the Col’s south side provided no real difficulty. Despite the narrow road and lack of Armco fencing, it feels safe enough to descend rapidly in third gear. After a while, a few forest workers stopped the first car in the convoy. I don’t know what they told Hermann who was leading the entire group, but I assume the scream of eight S38’s descending at full throttle alarmed them a bit. On the background of the second picture below, one can see the eastern approach to the ‘Asietta trail’, an old military road towards Sestriere.
After roughly five kilometers, we reached the intersection were we had the choice between continuing the descent and turning right towards the Assietta trail. Despite that continuing the descent would be the appropriate choice, we took a gamble and turned right towards the Cresta dell’Assietta. The next 36km proved to be an endurance which has never been preceded during one of the previous Alps tour editions, nor during any other organized Alps tour for regular cars as well. The combination of Colle dell Assieta / Colle Lauson / Colle Blegier / Colle Bourget and finally Colle Basset would take us high up in the remote area of the Piemonte Alps with a panoramic view that is unique for a motorized trip.
On the eastern side, the Colle delle Assietta ascends roughly 700 meters over a distance of roughly twelve kilometers. The road has been literally cut out of the mountain slopes a long time ago and is hardly being maintained. The gamble by taking this route is that the road conditions can change by the day. Especially there were the road is cut into the cliffs, there is a continuous risk of smaller or larger stone-avalanches.
Like so many other roads in the Ligurian Alps, the Assieta ridge trail has once been constructed by the military that needed an infrastructure between its defense installations high up in the mountains. The total network is complex and large, and despite that the military has left almost all compounds decades ago, a lot of these (unpaved) roads still exist today. The highest road of the entire Alps is also in the direct vicinity of Sestriere. With 3136mtr, the Mont Chaberton is the highest (unpaved) road that can be reached by motorcycle, but_ was closed in 2003 for any motorized traffic for environmental and safety reasons. Another famous example of an unpaved high Alpine ridge road is the Ligurian border ridge trail, roughly ninety kilometers in length which reaches as south as Col de Tende (1871mtr). It is beyond the scope of this article to describe all these old off-road routes, but those that are interested simply can use the Internet or buy the Denzel Alpenstrassen Fuhrer, a German booklet that describes almost 600!! Passes and Col’s in the Alps.
Despite that active off-road enthusiasts describe the Assietta trail as relatively easy, car enthusiast should not put blind faith in that. Erosion caused by rain and wind can alter road conditions by the day, and can even lead to natural obstacles blocking the road. Off road vehicles and motor-cycles then have a significant advantage as they can maneuver around and over these obstacles whereas regular cars _need the entire width of the road. Fortunately for us everything went well, and we reached the 2472mtr high Colle dell Asietta at roughly 11.30AM.
It felt like we were invaders in this deserted area, and to be honest I still wonder why it is opened for motorized traffic. Granted the amount of cars and motorcycles that use this road is small, so damage to the environment is little, but one cannot deny that the high Alpine territories are very vulnerable to intrusions. From that point of view we are very lucky to have experienced all this natural splendor and beauty from inside a car. Strangely, the highest point within the Assieta trail is not the Colle delle Assieta, but the almost 2600mtr high Tiesta dell Assieta instead. Located a few kilometers west of the actual Col, this point is marked with a memorial statue on one of the summits near the road. I don’t know the exact reason of this statue, but I assume this remembers Battle of Assietta that was fought in 1747 as part of the Austrian succession war.
During the rest of the tour, we referred back to this ordeal as: “schotter sonderprufung”, a German phrase, as except my father and I, all the participants spoke German as their mother tongue. After roughly one and a half hour and still no end in sight, I started worrying about the time-schedule and the challenges that we were unaware off. Many spots demanded a step by step centimeter wise approach to avoid ruining the tires, damaging front spoilers or even worse, getting stranded with cracked sumps or gearbox housings. This would not only mean a sudden end to the Alps tour, but also head-aches about the repatriation of the car involved.
With every kilometer that we progressed along this old route, every one of us considered returning. However, turning around only is possible on the respective Col’s as alongside the ridges between them there simply isn’t enough space to do so. Besides, with the prospect that returning could take more time or would be more dangerous then proceeding, we decided for the latter. On some of the pictures, the road doesn’t seem to be that difficult, yet the underground literally is ‘stone-hard’. This means that in a car like a ///M5, one feels every bump, every rock and every little gravel stone. A driver has the advantage of the tactile feedback of the car, yet he/she must continuously stay focused on the road ahead. A passenger doesn’t have the advantage of ‘control’, meaning that he/she has a completely different experience. As this is tiring for drivers as well as passengers, we stopped about half way towards Sestriere.
However, near Colle Blegier, the first group with Konstantin, Hermann and Dominik were stopped by Italian customs officials at Colle Blegier (2381mtr). We still wonder what they were doing up there, but one of the carabinieris halted the first group and asked the reason why ‘three foreign ///M5’s’ were driving through the Italian ‘outback’. I can imagine their amazement as apart from a few locally registered Fiat Panda 4x4’s, a bunch of off-road motorcycles and a few all wheel drive off-road cars there wasn’t much traffic. It seems that the carabinieris were amused with these ‘strange ducks’, proof of which was the fact that one of them grabbed his digital camera and made some pictures with a big grin on his face.
Colle Basset (2424mtr), the last Col within the Assieta trail was reached shortly after noon, after which we could start the long awaited descent. Though the end was in sight, this section was particularly steep, rough and bumpy and put our off-road driving abilities to a final test before arriving in the outskirts of Sestriere. After more then two hours of ‘outback’ driving, the tires of our cars could finally be used for their manufacturers intended purpose again. Although the Asietta ridge route is an once-in-a-lifetime experience, I don’t recommend it to anyone without a proper off road vehicle. The risk of getting stranded or making a maneuvering mistake simply is too high. The only reason why we were able to complete this survival section without substantial damage or accidents is the individual driving abilities of each and every participant. Technically, the cars get a severe beating too. Not so much the engines and gearboxes but more so the steering-and suspension components were stressed to the limit. And last but not least, after thirty kilometers of driving in dust, cars that normally are Diamond-black were transferred into Sebring-Grey. Especially the cars that drove in the rear part of the group, got dust all over them. The second picture shows my ‘immaculate’ engine compartment, that otherwise is clean and shiny. Next to replacing all the air-and interior filters, this will take me a few hours to tidy up.
By the time we arrived in Sestriere, we were supposed to be on the Col d’Izoard according to schedule, were a lunch break was planned. Getting there would however take another ninety minutes, putting us past lunchtime, so I changed plans and stopped in Sestriere were we visited a Pizzeria. Dominik, Hermann and Konstantin were near Col de Mont Genevre, roughly 20km further west, and we agreed to meet them there after lunch. During our pizza meal, I thought about a solution to compensate for the time lost during the outback session. My main concern was the two small Col’s west of Cuneo in Italy, one of which not indicated on any existing road map. If the Colle dei Morti couldn’t be found, we had no choice other then a long alternative route towards Cuneo and from there to Demonte, a distance of roughly ninety kilometers. The solution proved to be rather simple. As the routes for both Saturday and Sunday used the Col d’Izoard and the Col St Martin, I could exchange the two sections. The advantage was that instead of having two navigation challenges on Saturday, we shifted one of them to Sunday, whilst at the same time reducing our distance to St Martin de Vesubie by taking the shortest possible road.
We left Sestriere at roughly a quarter past two in the afternoon. First we descended towards Cesana Torinese further west, from where we would drive towards Briancon in France over the Col de Montgenevre (1894mtr). This Col is a main road between France and Italy and thus has to cope with the demands of today’s traffic. Especially the Italians take this seriously as there were quite a few construction zones were tunnels are being built to replace twisty sections. On the French side, the road is wide enough but has maintained that nice twisty appearance that we all love for giving our cars a good work out.
Although the speed limit on provincial roads is 90km/h, this is considered a very high speed, especially on passes. Imagine a few screamers, all accelerating up to 6000 or even 7000RPM in second and third gear and French police checking out traffic from and to Briancon! Even within the speed limits some police officers regard speeds over 60km/h as too fast and stopped the front two cars of our group. The rest of us could drive through. At first we thought that we got caught by a mobile speed-trap and that they only caught get valid measurements for the front two cars, but later in Briancon we heard that the only reason for the police to stop the first two cars was that they were driving with a speed that is inappropriate for mountain passes. Yeah right!
From Briancon to the South, we enter a different part of the Alps that is also known as the Southern Alps. Here, the Mediterranean gains influence the climate so one won’t find any snow-covered summits or glaciers anymore. On the Col du Lautarette (2058mtr) for instance, one can see the huge glaciers from the La Meije massive, but 30km to the Southeast, on the also very rough landscape around the Col d’Izoard (2360mtr), the summits are free of snow and one won’t find any glaciers. There are a lot of nice Col’s in the Southern Alps, and this area offers almost the same flexibility in route planning as in the Italian Dolomites. On the north side, the Col d’Izoard starts in the city center of Briancon. Although the directions in Briancion to the Col d’Izoard are excellent, I had a small navigation-black out and missed the intersection to the city center and the Col d’Izoard. Apart from Andy, the others didn’t make this mistake. I later heard that Tobias flashed his headlights, but Andy nor I noticed that, which set us back roughly fifteen minutes.
At first, the landscape around the Col d’Izoard is lovely, but with the increasing altitude, this changes into a rocky landscape until Cervières, the last village on the Col before reaching the highest point. During this last section, the most part is driven through forests, but shortly before reaching the pas-height, this changes into a surreal rock landscape. This part also is very twisty and contains a significant amount of hairpins. Thanks to the excellent asphalt however, the Col d’Izoard is perfect for large and heavy performance cars. Whilst driving through the forests, Martin who took a pits-top in Briancon to buy some fuel passed Andy and me.
During the ascent, it became apparent that my car had lost at least fifty horses. Like on the Col du Gr St Bernard the day before, it was as if a wooden block was placed underneath the throttle-pedal. This problem couldn’t be caused by a clogged air-filter alone. No, something else must be broken, but what? Since this wasn’t something that could be solved on site I had to live with it for the time being, but as you can imagine, it was very disturbing. Nevertheless, there are many other aspects to enjoy driving in the Alps other then full-throttle. Take for instance the topographic situation of the mountains around the Col d’Izoard. During millions of years, wind and rain have eroded these into a spectacular moonlike shape. One would like to spend a few hours to walk around, but during an Alps tour, the time schedule simply doesn’t allow that. In fact, there wasn’t enough time to stop for a brief moment either so we continued driving further south towards Ville Vieille.
According to the original route planning, we would have turned left towards the 2744mtr high Col d’Agnel. However, due to the altered route for today it was moved to Sunday. We drove towards Col de Vars (2109mtr) instead. Located between two impressive and demanding Col’s, one of which over 2700mtr high, the Col de Vars doesn’t seem to be that interesting, yet it is a rewarding piece of road. Starting in Guillestre, the Col de Vars ascends approximately 600mtr in roughly eight kilometers, after which a valley high up in the mountains is reached. From there on the road hardly ascends anymore before the winter-sports villages of Vars and St Marine de Vars (1660mtr). These are the last villages in this valley, after which the Col ascends with more then 7% up until Refuge Napoleon where one drives alongside an idyllic small mountain lake. From a driving point of view especially the first part between Guillestre and the village of Vars is rewarding. There are a few spots were the rough tarmac upsets the car’s balance, so if provoked some parts of this Col could bite back rather hard. This merely depends on the chosen average speed though, so it is difficult and technical only when one wants it to be.
The Col’s highest point is not very spectacular and hardly worth a stop so we continued driving towards Jaussiers. The south side is short and steep before reaching the first village of St Paul. More then half of the total altitude difference is descended during the first five kilometers on the south side, where one also has a spectacular view of the valley with the village of Les Gleizolles deep below. The Col de Vars ends here, but the descent continues and after a while, one enters a narrow gorge with cliffs hanging over the (twisty) road, which is spectacular to drive. After a while we reached the village of Jausiers, the starting point of the massive Col/Cime de la Bonette. With an altitude of 2807mtr above sea level it is the highest round trip paved road in Europe that can be reached by motorized traffic. Actually Cime de la Bonette is a two kilometer long extension next to the Col de la Bonette, which ‘only’ reaches to 2715mtr so strictly speaking, one can argue it being the highest pass in Western Europe. In the latter case it only is the fourth highest. Nevertheless this gigantic Col provides for a unique and rewarding driving challenge, and is a must for every driving enthusiast. With a total of fifty kilometers between the villages of Jausiers and St Etienne de Tinee, it is significantly longer then the Col d’Iseran. By comparison, Jausiers is located at 1220mtr above sea level, Val d’Isere at more then 1900mtr.
Given the fact that I missed the road signs towards the Col d’Izoard in Briancon, where Andy and I lost connection with the others, I was anxious to know the exact location of the rest. I called Konstantin to ask him about his whereabouts. Making the connection was easy, but talking to him was rather difficult due to the tire-squeal coming from his car. It was obvious that he was playing around with the touring’s balance. Despite the low signal to noise ratio, I could just hear Konstantin say that they were on the way towards the Cime de la Bonette. This meant that Oliver and Tobias were somewhere halfway up the Col and Martin somewhere in between.
The decision to exchange two sections of the route for Sunday and Saturday worked out better then expected. Everyone in the group was somewhere on the Col de la Bonette well before 5.00PM. This meant that we could reach our hotel in St Martin de Vesubie within the original scheduled time. However, Andy’s fuel situation turned out to be different then mines as according to his board computer, he had just enough fuel for another fifty kilometers, roughly the distance towards St Etienne de Tinee on the south side. When driving Col’s the fuel consumption is the average of the ascent and the descent and in general a car uses the most fuel during an ascent. With the Col’s highest point at less then twenty kilometers distance, Andy could reach the Col’s highest point without worrying about the fuel situation, after which he should still have enough fuel to complete the descent towards Isola. As a rule of thumb, depending on driving style, an E34 ///M5 uses between 12ltr/100km and 18ltr/100km in the mountains.
Basically, one can separate the north side of the Col de la Bonette in three parts. The lower section with many hairpins and its diverse vegetation is roughly ten kilometers in length. The second section starts at roughly 1700mtr and marks the transition into a high Alpine landscape. This part, although narrower then the first part still is twisty, but not as steep and with only a very few hairpins.
During the second part, one won’t find much vegetation other then grass covered slopes, but by then one already has passed the 2000mtr mark. Furthermore, the French have renewed the asphalt layer in the second and third section, which provided for a very smooth road surface which is ideal for exploring the cars instable qualities that some of our group without a doubt have been playing with. The third part starts at roughly 2300mtr and from here onwards, one enters the high Alpine landscape. The hairpins return and apart from an old military settlement, part of the abandoned Maginot defense line, there is hardly any sign of human activity in this remote area.
At roughly 2600mtr one reaches a high alpine plateau that that leads to the Col de Restefond (2680mtr) shortly followed by the Col de la Bonette (2715tr). The actual crossing towards the Tinee valley is located at the latter Col, but one can also choose to drive around the 2862mtr high summit of the Cime de la Bonette. This is by far the steepest part that reaches an altitude of 2807mtr above sea-level.
By the time that we arrived at Cime de la Bonette the first group of Konstantin, Dominik and Hermann was still there. The panoramic view is breathtaking, and it appears that the summit of Cime de la Bonette is the highest in the entire region, hence why one gets the feeling of being ‘on top of the world’. There is a sight seeing point, but this requires a hike to the summit of roughly fifteen minutes. I assume that Tobias, Oliver and Martin have used the crossing at the Col and didn’t drive all the way up around the Cime de la Bonette as otherwise they couldn’t have missed the first group a few kilometers more south.
After a while, I took a ten minute lead to find a nice photo shoot location to take some action pictures from the others. It didn’t me that long to find a suitable location, after which I changed lenses and waited. Although I had good visibility on the south side of the Cime de la Bonette and Col de la Bonette, it was difficult to visually identify the cars until about ten seconds before passing. After adjusting the composition on a few other bypassing cars, I heard the sound of four S38’s reflecting against the steep southern slopes of Cime de la Bonette after which it didn’t take long for them to drive by. The first picture shows Dominik followed by Konstantin. The second picture shows Konstantin alone and last but not least, the master himself on the third picture.
After a few kilometers, we approached another abandoned settlement, which like those on the Restefond I assume to be of military origin. These days, it is hard to imagine that these were once needed, but bear in mind that the Col de la Bonette runs parallel to the French / Italian border and that both countries were at war not that long ago.
The road towards St Etienne de Tinee is twenty-six kilometers long, during which the Bonette descends more then 1400mtr. Though the asphalt layer is not new, the road conditions are good, yet due to the many hairpins and many sections that descent more then ten percent, this part is technical. Other then a few cars and motorcycles, we didn’t see much other traffic during the descent. Coming from the rough and spectacular Col de La Bonette, it is hard to imagine that one is already driving in the Maritime Alps, yet the distance to Nice and the Mediterranean from this point is less then sixty kilometers.
After a short refueling stop near Isola, we drove towards the Col St Martin (1500mtr), the last Col for this day before reaching the village of St Martin de Vesubie, our destination for today. This Col connects the Tinee valley with the Vesubie valley and can perfectly be combined with a round trip with the Col de Turini (1600mtr), the Colle de Tende (1870mtr) and the Col de la Lombarde (2350mtr), however we had to choose between the Colle de Tende or the Col de la Lombarde and the route over the Lombarde simply is shorter. Knowing what I know now, this roundtrip is manageable, even within the four day schedule of the Alps tour. Anyhow, the Col St Martin bends from the D902 towards Rimplace with almost 180 degrees, after which it ascends steadily over a twisty road towards the village of Valdeblore at 1000mtr above sea level. Due to the two separate lanes, one for each direction, this Col isn’t really difficult, but to me the landscape with dense forests on the mountain slopes looked impressive. After Valdeblore, the road continues without many challenging curves until the last part before reaching the village of la Colmaine at 1500mtr’s.
After driving through la Colmaine, the Col St Martin descends towards St Martin de Vesubie. This part isn’t that steep nor that extremely challenging so the descend towards St Martin was uneventful. This old village itself is the most interesting and certainly worth a stop. After some searching we found Hotel le Gelas in the old part of St Martin. Some of us could park the cars in front of the hotel near the main road. The others had to park their cars at a parking place about 100mtr back.
Since the Hotel didn’t have a restaurant, Hermann made some reservation in a nice establishment in the centre of the village. This proved to be difficult to find also, and at first we walked past it and after walking through the entire centre twice, we finally found it in the cellar of a book-shop. The restaurant was small but fine and despite the language barrier, we felt comfortable. As usual Hermann took his role as translator one more time, and with help of the pretty waitress, he assisted those of us that don’t speak French in making our menu selection.
Dinner took roughly two hours during which we talked through the events of Saturday. Despite all the difficulties, we looked back at the Cresta dell’Assietta as one of the tours highlight but also agreed to skip this kind of roads in the future. For the rest, we had a great day with the Col d’Izoard and the Col de la Bonette as absolute highlights. Despite the hard driving, nothing broke and all cars arrived in St Martin safe and sound. After saying goodbye to the waitress and the restaurant-owner who were very hospital and thanked us kindly for our business, we walked back to our hotel. Despite that we completed exactly fifty percent of the total route; we still had a day and a half of driving before reaching the official finish in the South of Switzerland. Since we exchanged parts of the route between Saturday and Sunday, I knew that we still had some challenging roads to drive, amongst others the 2744mtr high Col d’Agnel between Italy and France. Stay tuned for part III.