Mont Blanc Tunnel to the Valle d’Aosta, Bella Italia!

Zagan the motorhome’s tucked up safe on a winter sosta in the ski resort of La Thuile. We’re sat in the Valle d’Aosta, deep in Italy’s alpine north-western corner (N45.70831 E6.95314). It cost us €18.80 a night to say here (including hook-up), which is expensive for almost any aire, anywhere, but we’re not fussed. We’ve been off-grid for four nights, staying for free in Chamonix, so it was time for us to get some electricity into our batteries, and to dispense of a rapidly-filling cassette!

Motorhome sosta in La Thuile

Recovered(ish) from Mandy and Todd’s magnificent hospitality, we had no more excuses to linger in Chamonix. Apart from a last-minute shop that is, picking up our favourite French goodies from a Carrefour Market before leaving the country for a few more months. I’ve developed an addiction to chicken rillettes – a sort of course roast chicken mash – it’s delicious! We love confit de canard too – duck cooked and stored in its own fat. Slimming World aren’t going to thank anyone for eating this stuff, but it is a taste sensation. The shop came to €69, which wasn’t a bad effort considering the French farmer’s strike had left some of the shelves half-empty, plus we’ve a box of wine in here somewhere! In among that lot, we picked up a couple of Religiueses Cafe, after a suggestion from Ian on yesterday’s blog. Here they are (this picture is all that is left of them, they were beautiful, stuffed full of a coffee-cream filling):

Religiueses Cafe

Cupboards full, we programmmed the sat nav for Courmayeur, allowing her to use a toll route for once. Hilariously, considering we’re surrounded by some of the most unforgiving mountains in Europe, the screen showed a dead straight line. Yup, some kind souls have had the foresight to drill a 11km tunnel straight under the Mont Blanc massif, allowing us easy passage to Italy. I wasn’t entirely truthful there, as there are a few switchbacks to lift you high enough to reach the tunnel entrance, but it was far simpler than the alternative 4 or 5 hours of twisting through France, Switzerland and Italy. In the elbow of one of these 180 degree corners stands a memorial to the people killed in a horrific tunnel fire in 1999, when a lorry loaded with flour and margarine went alight, turning the narrow tube into a smoke-filled oven.

Managing to roll up to the toll booth in the correct lane (phew – go left folks – the PL lane’s for HGVs and buses), our credit card was swiftly lightened by €57.60 for a one-way ticket. The tunnel itself is single carriageway, with a 70kph speed limit. As we started to roll along, Ju picked up the ticket and noted we had to stay 150m back from the next vehicle, and if they stopped for any reason, we had to stop 100m back from them. Blue lights along the sides of the tunnel indicate the 150m separation, and no-one seemed to be taking the rule lightly. Understandable, given the impossibility of getting emergency services to the right place otherwise. 11km of tunnel would be a bit boring, but the effects of the imagination of that memorial kept us alert and cautious. After a wee while a blazing light sucked up the car ahead, and out we popped into the sun-washed Valle d’Aosta, back into Italy!

The Italian side of the Mont Blanc tunnel

The plan was to nip to a car park in Courmayeur, which we’re read somewhere might have a service point. Rumbling a little on the age-creased Italian roads, we were there in about 8 seconds, the town sits just below the tunnel entrance. After a quick scout round the ski lift car park, we assessed it to be a non-starter and rolled up here. The last time we were in these ‘ere parts, we followed a route up the Petit St Bernard pass, which is exactly the same bit of road to get us here the La Thuile. That time we carried on over the pass to La Rosiere, but at this time of year that road’s snowmobile territory, so we’ve only made it as far as here.

Courmayeur and the Aosta Valley

La Thuile’s a ski resort. That’s pretty much it as far as we can tell. Oh, and hiking and mountain biking in summer. The town’s nice enough, but compared with Chamonix, it’s as dead as a doornail. An effect probably compouned by the fact they held the women’s downhill world cup event here at the weekend, and there are a few lingering artefacts of the fun – a team car here, a couple of pink-painted skis there, the blue paint on the precipitous ski slope.

It’s also lashing it down. Not snow, nah, good old fashioned British splattering rain. The mountains around us were all erased hours ago. We’ve taken the opportunity to shower Charlie (he won’t speak to us for weeks now), shower ourselves (long, long overdue) and get started on the Rough Guide to Italy, sussing new spots to go check out in the coming weeks.

There’s been a lot of snow in La Thuile – that’s a buried bench Ju’s sat on!

Shop display in La Thuile

I’m loving that BBQ!

Hotel in La Thuile

While we’ve enjoyed a quick splash of winter motorhome action, my feeling is it’s really worth the additional effort if you want to ski or board, but perhaps not otherwise. The towns up here are generally geared up for skiing, and little else, not even much of an apres-ski scene (Chamonix being a notable exception). The ability to get a motorhome into ski resorts and stay in comfort for very little money is impressive, but I have a feeling we’ll not be long for the cold high places of this world. Assuming there isn’t a massive dump of snow tonight that is…

Time to get this lot studied!

Cheers, Jay