Chapter #9

Back to "home base"

for a couple of days

and my plans included a visit to

La Grave.

Tiny little village not far away,

but a must see as far as I was concerned

cos it looked amazing

and I wasn't disappointed.

If you ever go to this part of France,

go visit La Grave if only to see the church.

Small, but perfectly beautiful.

I can,t begin to imagine how many people

have walked on these floor boards

over the centuries!

 The view from the village,

across the other side of the valley...

...and the view down the valley...

Spectacular!

One evening, during this stay in Briancon,

I went for short walk down through the two

tiny settlements on either side of the camp.

Had driven through them enough times,

and there were things

that needed to be photographed :)
Such as this window -
my all time favourite(so far )

So there I was taking the occasional picture,
as you do,

trying not to be too obviously touristy

when a resident came over and said,

''the date is real''.

Above the door was the date - 1818.
We chatted for a while,
and he told me that his "family"
had lived in the house directly opposite
for more than 400 years!!

As I continued my wander
it grew a little darker
and the lamps went on up little side lanes.

It's funny 'cos up until that walk
I had kind of taken these little villages
for granted,
passing through them many times.
It's not until you get out of the car,
and walk,
and look,
that you see so many
everyday things
that are really beautiful.

Okay,
so the next race was in Cervinia.
This is just over the border
into Italy,
past beautiful lakes...

...and over the top of more

very very high 

mountain passes!

Cervinia is nestled 
at the base of the
majestic Matterhorn.

Naturally I managed to squeeze a decent
walk in on the first day
which is just as well
'cos it rained solid
all of the next day -
this was a new experience!!

  

So the rainy day was Jake's first race day,

practice day.

This race started at 2500 mtrs!

On the skifield.

It wasn't snowing at the top,

but it was cold - very cold!

Practice day was pretty good,

considering the weather

and race day dawned bright and sunshiney,

with a fresh coat of snow on the mount!

Morning went good...

afternoon not so good :(

To cut a long story short...
a trip to the closest Italian hosptial
the next day...
 he received incredible attention,
though to this day we still
have absolutely no idea what they told us,
other than it was not broken.
But...
no riding for a couple of weeks!

So...hasty change of plans required...
 rather than sit around waiting for it to heal,
we decided to make the best of the situation
and see a little more of Europe.

Got the map out and decided we would
first head for Luxembourg.
See you there :)
Jenny xx