13 May 2014 – 7.5 km from Gigoud to Aosta
Departure! Cinzia insisted on driving me (in her new Mercedes sports car – what a way to start a pilgrimage!) as part of my 70th birthday present, to my starting point at the southern end of the tunnel under the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass – which is still snow covered as they started clearing the snow on Monday 5th May but it takes 3 weeks to clear the road!
When we emerged from the tunnel it was snowing so she insisted on going further down and then we couldn’t find a bar open to have the necessary “cappuccino” until Gigoud so we stopped there after we had flown by the hotel I’d reserved for the first night!! So after the cappuccino we took photos and I gave her a good-bye hug and started off walking towards Aosta. When I stopped to eat something I had to call to cancel the first hotel as well as ring the second to say I’d arrive a day early and then cancel the booking I’d made for the 3rd night (nothing like being prepared & then have a change of plans!). Then it was downhill to Aosta all the way but this gave me a chance to adjust to my ruck-sack which was just over 8 kg and to get my thighs used to the down-hill slope… On the way into town two women spoke to me and I must have said something in both French (which is widely spoken in the Val d’Aoste) and Italian and when one of them replied to me in Italian the other one said “but she speaks French” and the first one said “I’m just giving her some practice”!
Got into my hotel & then went to the bookshop to purchase the maps of the route which the man had put aside for me & I looked at the sights of the town centre (gorgeous cloister at the Saint’Ours church with incredible capitals on the columns surrounding the cloister) and returned to the hotel. Also went to the post office & took money from the Postomat but no receipt(!) & I then went back inside & took a number to wait to buy stamps. There’s nothing like the efficiency of the Swiss post-office which one only really appreciates when one is in another country. After waiting at least 20-25 mins I went up to the counter & asked to buy stamps for postcards to Australia and the woman asked me to show her the cards but I told her I hadn’t bought them yet & she then said she couldn’t sell them to me as there would be at least 4 stamps on each card so I should come back with the cards & she could print out a single stamp for me… As it was cold and windy (a constant in this valley!) I started to feel cold in the room & realized the heating wasn’t on and when I asked I was told that the heating is turned off at the end of April (so just as well that I was sleeping at 530 m altitude & not the 1250 m I had originally intended!). I had dinner in the hotel & fell into bed as I’d not slept much the day before.
These are photos as I was setting off which Cinzia sent me. If we’d come out if the tunnel about 45 mins later the weather would have been brilliant and perhaps I could have walked from the tunnel (but then I’d have been colder in the hotel at the higher altitude…).
