Around the Turini pass
A little less than 8 km north of Peïra-Cava, by the winding ridge road which crosses beautiful forests, here is the Col de Turini (1607 m).
From there, four roads open up: the one in level from which we come from Peïra-Cava at south, to the east the one that sinks towards the Bévéra valley via the village of Moulinet, to the west the one which descends towards the Vésubie valley passing through the village of La Bollène-Vésubie, and to the north-east that which rises towards the Authion massif.
Both east and west lanes hurtle down the slopes through numerous switchbacks.
Our frequent breaks on the terrace of the hotel-restaurant of the pass allowed us to see how well known the site is, both European cyclists and motorcyclists and rallymen in more or less old sports cars (Triumph, Lotus. ..or Porsche).
The Monte Carlo rally is also still happening here.
The pass is a known starting point for many hikes, which we will try our hand at.
Around the Turini pass, the little Arpiha path
Just in the 2nd lace above the pass in the direction of the Authion massif, a track exiting the curve climbs towards a clearing-plateau.
There is the "Vacherie de Mantegas", a farm which manufactures tome. His herd roams in total freedom in the pastures and meadows all around the pass.
Familiar reminder of childhood memories where I kept cows (or vice versa?) On the banks of the Garonne.
But over there without the clarines, very useless in the fenced meadows, and which would have disturbed my nap.
The force of habit and the physiological appeal of milking mean that, in a good disorder, the ringing herd crosses the pass to return to the barn at regular time towards evening, decorating the asphalt or the slopes with generous dung.
At the end of the clearing of the farm, a wide track descends through a beautiful forest towards the small projecting peak of the Arpiha.
But despite our efforts and due to faulty markup, we will not go that far.
We should be satisfied with an improvised loop, quiet through uncertain paths opened by the maintenance work of conifers, a little disappointed by the lack of information from the route.
Corn the way back is very pleasant. Our loop was inscribed between markers 235 and 236 on the map, with perhaps a shortcut upstream of the latter.
We will have the opportunity to note that the uncertainties of the markup are frequent here, unlike what we know in the northern Alps.
A real spectacle for all the tourists seated on the terraces, or for the children of a noisy and happy hosted summer camp in a neighboring building; the parade of muddy flanks unravel for almost an hour.
Returned one after the other to the farm, with their beautiful atavism they first take a few sips to drink from a long trough, then enter the barn for the treaty.
The worthy farmer now old, bony and very strong who owns it, slowly brings the herd to a close.
The cohort of the cohort accompanied by his dog wear all the authenticity of country and its heritage.
to go
on the way back
From the Turini pass,
around the Calmette
Another day, opposite the pass from the circuit previous, we hike on the one de la Calmette. More interesting.
The outward journey is made from superb clearings, shaded by very tall pines and spruces, in beautiful easy paths with a little difference in height, after leaving the forest house to our left and passing under the ski lift.
Arrived at the tag 181 (Patronel drop), the return is made by a narrow balcony path which often marries very near the steep mountain relief, climbs, descends, clings to the cliff sometimes, crosses streams as best they can.
More difficult than we thought, even if the hike is classified as "easy" by the guides.
He finally arrives with relief (for us, modest little trained hikers that we are) at the beacon 33 of the place called "Gasta Fume" (the smoking cat ??).
Marlène retrospectively reads the journey accomplished.
In a beautiful, long, gently sloping clearing, we find a splendid and wide forest path that leads us directly above the pass.
On the last slope before reaching it, a chamois, or rather here a deer (?) can be seen through the forest. He watches us fearlessly from a distance, then walks away peacefully.
The undergrowth is magnificent, with a few passages through large rocks and a great diversity of relief and configuration.
More natural, much less comfortable than the previous one, it offers superb landscapes to the south-east, and justifies the announced vertical drop of around 360 m, and the duration.
Preserving my vertigo, the steep sides are provided sometimes (but not always) of conifers that hide the ravines.
From the Turini pass,
the Authion tour
Another beautiful circuit, very different in its flora, is that of the Authion massif. You get there by climbing the small road to Camp d'Argent, which you cross.
The road is then narrower, continues to rise in balcony.
The forest is rarer, then even disappears, beyond a certain altitude.
We manage finally by car to the starting point that we have chosen, on a ridge, named the Tuéis hut (1889m).
This marks one of the entry points to the Mercantour National Park from the south.
Renamed "Charles Alessi's hut", this name change has not failed to introduce some confusion.
Thus, as the massif is surrounded by an asphalt road suitable for vehicles (red circuit), to take our marks, we go around it for the first time by car looking for the Tuéis hut. Not found.
It was only after returning to our starting point that, information taken from a regular in the country, we see that Tuéis and Alessi are one.
Tuéis hut
After the first ridge which dominates a small mausoleum to the glory of the soldiers who took over the Authion during the last war, erected above a curve in the road, and beyond a length of ruined buildings , here is on a nipple, facing the eastern peaks the "Pointe des Trois Communes" redoubt, built in 1898, at an altitude of 2080 m.
Stocky, powerful as a formidable dungeon, it bears witness to fierce battles, in its open sky setting, through the countless impacts that shattered the stone.
View from the redoubt
The Pointe redoubt
of the Three Communes
Unique point of view, from where, on the southern slope, one dominates the "cow farm of Authion", boxed in a valley below the road.
In the absence of comments that could better shed light on military life in these abandoned buildings, we can guess the differentiated spaces and volumes, the buried basements whose access has become dangerous, the casemates, the powder magazines, the almost Doric columns. chimneys that rise above the walls.
The care with which the frames of the openings, or those of modern loopholes have been constructed suggests fine architectural efforts.
Likewise, a little further on, the buried trenches still seem to have a function, which we assume this time to be non-belligerent, and which we cross through small passages thrown over them.
This set on the Plan Caval site is the last to be built in 1940; it is made up of an infrastructure of underground galleries connected by walkways or shafts.
The sight of all these still robust ruins, which only the roof lacks, amazes and fascinates, but above all testifies to an intense life, not so old, in all seasons.
From the redoubt, we descend towards the cow farm, while in this first visit (circuit 1), clouds rise towards us, fill the valleys and spread their scarves on the slopes.
We choose not to continue the path this time and to reach the Tuéis hut by a shortcut through the meadows of the cow farm (blue arrow plan).
The rise of the slope, in front of us, which borders the road to join, seems easy to us.
Another time (circuit 2), we complete the entire circuit, starting with the same ridge climb, only reaching the asphalt around the 150 beacon.
The reliefs of the northeast are spread out in numerous and slow rather dry slopes to the adret.
Having come twice to this beautiful site, we start a first hike by the small hollow path of the ridge that we climb to the top, above the small road.
As from any ridge, the panoramas are splendid on both sides, giving on the left in the rise on a small forest bordering the slope.
Having reached the first summit, the Authion massif reveals itself in its majesty, all in slow and rounded hillocks like Auvergne reliefs with the Italian alpine heights in the background.
Its slopes are still provided with larch forests, but mainly form pastures of thick grass.
View from the redoubt
What strikes and The originality of the massif is that they are in fact the ruins of old military buildings, spread over its entire perimeter, above the road, or on flared trays.
Part of the famous and very efficient (!!) "Maginot line".
Until the powerful redoubt spotted from a distance.
The fortifications scattered over the slow relief are sometimes hidden (La Forca area), deliberately retracted into the curve of the meadows, so that you have to approach them to discover them in their organization of granite stones.
A bit of modern poliorcetics.
The alignments of the buildings have lost their roof but retain their thick walls and the more or less collapsed windows, decorated with rather beautiful stone facings.
The ghostly framing of these openings, in this silence barely swept by the wind, cut out mountainous backgrounds. Immutable contrast.
Yet even at timescales very different, that of the works of man and that of geological times which made these mountains, nothing eternal, despite appearances.
In fact, inexperience on our part, it will turn out quickly very abrupt, like the one from the upper edge of a giant bowl whose interior slope must be climbed.
So much so that, believing to follow as best we can the barely traced paths that cows make while grazing, we are soon dazed in the fog, almost climbing, clinging to the shrubs, bushes, to anything that can help climb.
What to curse yourself moments of having made that bad choice.
Until after having finally joins the bitumen liberating flat above.
At the "Camp de Cabanes Vieilles" is also celebrated the takeover by France of the massif from the Germans on April 10, 1945.
THE tank has been preserved and fixed on a small cement terrace.
Everywhere in any case, beautiful panoramas to the south in particular, for a circuit where the only modest difficulty is that of the start: 180 m of elevation. the Total height difference is about 290 m, and 10 m more when you go up to the redoubt.
On the ubac, pines, larches and spruces bristle the slopes with a superb harmony of color, whose cones in tight army rise to the assault of the massif.
The slope is so steep that the trees seem to be leaning towards the top.
Larch plays the originals, the only conifer with foliage Deciduous, whose needles are soft to the touch despite their thorny appearance.
In this post-spring season, their color is light bistre, with a nuance of reddish-pink.
But in the 2nd photo, we may be dealing with a larch disease ("meria" or other infection) which also gives this color.
The fir is a dark green and deep.
That of the spruce takes a beautiful tint dark green, but lighter than fir, with harder needles.
For the rest, between bluish landscapes which are the showcase of vigorous thistles, a lazy lizard on a low wall of large blocks of dry stone, a few frolicking butterflies, the charm of mountain wild flowers and curious geological formations in layered layers of shale "chips" (perhaps the "schist-cardboard" for specialists, the one that contained the famous and controversial "gas shale", there completely degassed), nothing but very banal, ... but beautiful mountain .
