The Via Francigena (English Edition)

THE ROUTE

1

GRAN SAN BERNARDO PASS ➜ ECHEVENNOZ

Doues 1200

Grand Buthier Allein

Echevennoz 0 00

2

0

240

0

160

14

1.12

Etroubles

Mont Labiez

2800

1.11

Monte Chenaille

1.10 12

2000

Saint-Oyen

2400

16

00

1.9

SS 27

Italy

10

1.6

Saint Rhemy

Pointe de Barasson

Testa Cordellaz

1.8

Saint-Léonard 1.7

8

Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses

1.5

1.4 6

1.2 1.1

4

1.3

Basse Tête

2000

Gran San Bernardo Pass

La Cantina

eam az str van Arta

T2

Petit Mont Mort

Mottes

Tete de Crevacol

2

Monte Rodzo Pointe de Drône

Tête des Faces

Pain de Sucre

Pointe des Trois Lacs

Pointe d’Entremont 0

240

2800

Monts Telliers

2400

Grand Créton

Switzerland

Aiguille de la Belle Combe

2800

Grand Golliat

From Gran San Bernardo Pass to Echevennoz

1

400 0m 0km

5

ETROUBLES

800

10

ECHEVENNOZ

1,200

SAINT-OYEN

1,600

SAINT-LÉONARD

2,000

SAINT-RHÉMY-EN-BOSSES

2,400

GRAN SAN BERNARDO PASS

2,800

15

20

25

30

35

LENGTH: 14.9km

LOCALITÀ LA CANTINA: Casa per ferie Don

ALTITUDE DIFFERENCE ASCENT: 60m

Angelo Carioni, Località La Cantina, SS 27 del Colle del G.S. Bernardo km 30+500, t. 335-60.12.847, alberto.dassisti@gmail. com, 82 b., €37 half board, (L), 1/6-15/10.

SAINT-RHÉMY-EN-BOSSES: B&B La Vieille Cloche, Frazione St-Léonard 11, t. 380-51.59.554, chenalm65@gmail.com, www.lavieillecloche.it, 6 b., €35-50 breakfast included, baggage transportation, (L), (Y).

SAINT-OYEN: Casa per ferie Château Verdun, Strada Flassin 3, t. 0165-52.49.68, info@ chateauverdun.com, www.chateauverdun. com, 80 b., €15 (€25 linen and breakfast included), (L), (Y).

ETROUBLES: B&B Maison d’Ulysse, Piazza E. Chanoux 1, t. 328-42.65.035, info@ maisondulysse.com, www.maisondulysse. com, 6 b., €25, baggage transportation, (L), 15/6-15/9 (sometimes also 1/5-14/6 and 16/9-31/10).

Camping Tunnel, Strada Chevrières 4, t. 0165-78.292, info@campingtunnel.it, www.campingtunnel.it, 13 b. in the bungalow, with one’s own sleeping bag, from €15, €9 tent, (M) during summer months, baggage transportation, (L).

ECHEVENNOZ (ETROUBLES): Ostello Dortoir Echevennoz, Frazione Echevennoz, t. 0165-78.225 / 340-34.83.049, ruffierdidier@gmail.com, 20 b., €22 in dormitory breakfast included,

ALTITUDE DIFFERENCE DESCENT: 1,300m DIFFICULTY: demanding

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Autobus Arriva ensures the connection with the Colle del Gran San Bernardo from June to September, with two daily runs on route 422, Aosta-Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses, arriva.it.

FACILITIES

Bars and hotels on the Gran San Bernardo Pass; at Predumaz-Falcoz (Saint-Léonard), Saint-Oyen and Etroubles bar restaurant, grocer’s shop; water supplies possible in all the villages. Bar trattoria in Echevennoz.

Etroubles Tourist Office, Rue du Mont Vélan 1 (July and August), grandcombin@turismo.vda.it.

PLACES TO STAY COL DU GRAND-SAINT-BERNARD (SWITZERLAND):

Hospice du Grand-Saint-Bernard, Bourg-Saint-Pierre, hospice@gsbernard. com, www.gsbernard.com, between SFr 37-70, depending upon accommodation.

COLLE DEL GRAN SAN BERNARDO (ITALY): Hotel Italia, Località Colle Gran San Bernardo, t. 0165-78.00.63, info@gransanbernardo.it, www.gransanbernardo.it, 20 b., €25-30 depending upon accommodation, 5/630/9, baggage transportation, (L), (M).

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GRAN SAN BERNARDO PASS ➜ ECHEVENNOZ

€25 in double room breakfast included, €40 half board, baggage transportation, (L), 1/5-31/10.

Chambre d’hôtes L’Abri, Frazione

Echevennoz Dessus 11, t. 0165-78.96.46 / 347-96.80.595, info@affittacamerelabri.it, www.abri-valledaosta.com, 12 b., €25-30, (L), (Y), (M), baggage transportation.

The Gran San Bernardo Pass was undoubtedly already in use in proto-historical times. The Romans, who built a road there, did not stray too far from the routes trodden by the ancient Salassi. Today, the viaducts and various stretches of the road that climb up to the tunnel mark the landscape of this valley. Yet walkers have the privilege of walking along mule tracks, paths and easy tracks covered in grass in a complete Alpine environment. If you are tackling the journey at the end of spring, you should take into account that there are still some areas of snow in the early stages. But the path soon descends, first among the larches, then through pastureland from village to village.

The GRAN SAN BERNARDO PASS (2,473m) is in Swiss territory. The point of departure is the hotel-host. Follow the asphalt road downhill, with a view of the pretty Plan de Jupiter lake, and the Italian hotel facing onto it. After 500m you leave the SS 27 at the Italian border [1.1] and take a path to the right (103, the yellow signs of which will accompany you throughout the Valdostan stretch). The path goes past the monumental statue of St Bernard, crosses the Plan de Jupiter and returns to asphalt about 400m further on [1.2].

After crossing the A-road, take the mule track, which descends steeply.

After walking for 400m, you ford a stream, and at the three-way junction a little further on, go down to the left. There are two other easy fords, and you emerge again on the SS 27, which you cross to take the path that continues and then goes down to return to the A-road by a “casa cantoniera” (typically red houses built to house men who worked on the roads) (2,218m) [1.3].

Cross the road and continue descending onto the cart track on the opposite side; 600m further on, at a three-way junction turn right onto the path along the hillside. In the initial stretch you descend gradually, then in small bends on a steep path that becomes a cart track, on which you continue to the left. The track then finishes on the A-road [1.4], and you are now close to the built-up area of SAINT-RHÉMY-EN-BOSSES.

Follow the asphalt for around 400m, then go down to the right onto the path for Saint-Rhémy and immediately turn left: the trail, which is between the road and the river, joins the access road to the village by the car park. Go straight down towards the main street going through the village. At the last houses, go right [1.5], take the trail that follows the stream on the orographic right side and you come to asphalt at the first houses of Saint-Léonard (village of Predumaz-Falcoz). Go straight on along the asphalt road and, a little further on, at the stop at the crossroads [1.6], take the road that goes down and under the A-road for the Gran San Bernardo tunnel 300m further on. Continue downhill among the houses of Saint-Léonard (1,510m). Once you reach the church [1.7], walk along the right side until you find the mule track that 30

GRAN SAN BERNARDO PASS ➜ ECHEVENNOZ

PLAN DE JUPITER. The lake just after the pass.

goes down behind the bell tower. You rejoin asphalt at the village of Cerisey, and continue left (by a fountain), on the road that runs alongside a ru (which is what the ancient irrigation canals are called in Valle d’Aosta). At the junction before the bridge over the stream [1.8], turn left onto the cart track which becomes a mule track. The trail comes to a canal covered by a metal grid, which you follow on the left-hand side.

Walk alongside the ru on a mule track for around 900m, until you find a cart track on the right that goes up and takes you to the A-road 300m further on [1.9], now close to SAINT-OYEN. Continue on the pavement to the centre of the town that develops along the road (1,373m). At the church, go right into Rue Veraz; 100m further on (by a fountain) left again on Rue Veraz and at the next T-junction, turn left.

After passing Château-Verdun, the road takes you back to the A-road [1.10], which you cross to find, on the opposite side, a road going down that soon becomes a mule track. You enter Rue de Vachery, which you cross to continue straight on along the cobbled section that joins the A-road. There is no pavement here, and you continue on the path on the left for a short stretch, as far as Rue Deffeyes, the main street of ETROUBLES, which you join on the left as the A-road bends. Then go right into Rue du Mont Vélan [1.11]. You cross the A-road using the pedestrian underpass, then crossing the bridge over the Artanavaz stream (photographic display on the Via Francigena inside), you walk uphill to Rue Saint-Roch. The road bends to the left and, by

the cemetery, you take a mule track uphill to the right; 700m further on you return to asphalt with a descent. Cross the road and, on the opposite side, you find the cart track that continues parallel to the old A-road. A little further on, you cross another road that goes up to the houses of Lavanche, after which there is a mule track that contin31

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GRAN SAN BERNARDO PASS ➜ ECHEVENNOZ

ues to the right. Follow the mule track [1.12] to the houses of Echevennoz, where, attached to the church, you will find the staging post.

What to see Gran San Bernardo Pass The pass was already in use in the Roman Period. Archaeological remains of the Roman road date from the 1st century AD (a paved section dug out of the rock) a little past the Plan de Jupiter.

There was a temple there devoted to Jupiter Poeninus, the consequence of the religious syncretism of the Latins, who assimilated the classical pagan god with Penn, the male divinity revered by the Celto-Ligurians as lord of the peaks, and from whom various toponyms derive, including Mount Penna, the Apennines and the Pennine Alps. Traces of the Roman settlement, which included two mansiones (official stopping places), are located in the archaeological area at Plan de Jupiter. The pass was later used continuously throughout the Middle Ages and, with the major influx of pilgrims in around the year 1000, Bernard of Menthon, Archdeacon of Aosta who later became a saint, founded the large hostel structure that is still active today, to replace the mansiones that had fallen into disuse with the end of the Empire. The statue of St Bernard dominates Plan de Jupiter from a cliff tob.

St-Rhémy-en-Bosses This village is recalled by Sigeric as Sce Remei, stage XLVIII from Rome. The last village that pilgrims coming from Aosta came to before tackling the pass, it has the typical structure of villages along the route, with the houses aligned along the central street. In the past it had a hostel and the inhabitants enjoyed particular privileges in exchange for accompanying and assisting pilgrims. They also had the exclusive right to the transportation of goods, and the prosperity of the settlement can also be seen in the richness and solidity of the stone and wood houses.

It is here that the excellent Vallée d’Aoste Jambon de Bosses DOP is produced, a dry-cured ham spiced with mountain herbs. There is evidence of it having been produced here by the Comtes de l’Hospice du GrandSaint-Bernard as far back as 1397.

Saint-Oyen The ancient fortified house Château-Verdun is noteworthy.

Since the 11th century it served as the Hospice of the Gran San Bernardo, both for pilgrims and their mules, but also as a farm, providing supplies for the hostel itself. Château-Verdun has been restored and since 1991 has been a guest house in its own right, open to all.

Etroubles The beautiful sculptures in this open-air museum welcome visitors into the main street, Via Deffeyes. This permanent art gallery has numerous works by artists of world renown, including beautiful wooden sculptures by Valdostan artists. There was once a castle where the parish church now stands, and there is evidence that there was a pilgrim hostel here as long ago as 1317. A plaque indicates the house where Napoleon stayed overnight on 20th May, 1800.

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