A hike around St Bonnet en Champsaur

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My friend Lin and I decided to travel south from Serre Chevalier to take a look at the area known as Champsaur (literal translation, "fields of gold"). My inspiration for the trip was a book of watercolour illustrations by Alexis Nouailhat featuring landscapes in Champsaur and Valgaudemar. We took the RN94 via Savines le Lac and Embrun, turning off just before the major town of Gap, to follow the Col de Manse over the mountains.  This was a really fun Col to drive, not particularly steep or scarey , along winding lanes, bordered by orange and gold autumn trees. The top was a vast plateau, almost more african looking than alpine, but definitely very chilly when we got out of the car to stretch our legs!

We drove down to St Bonnet, arriving at about 11.10am just after the tiny tourist office had closed. The temperature was glacial with a wind that cut through vest, t-shirt, jumper bodywarmer and ski jacket! St Bonnet is a charming village which has retained its medieval appearance and narrow streets in the centre. The medieval tower in the market place is under restoration. We took a quick walk around the centre, jumping from one patch of sunlight to the next to keep warm! Since it was October, only a handful of shops and the odd cafe were open.

Having wisely brought our own provisions (including two flasks of tea and one of coffee) we decided to head out to the hills to use the mid-day sunshine to do a two-three hour walk, not wanting to lose the best part of the sight -seeing day by waiting for places to open again after lunch at 2pm or even 3pm.  We headed east towards Les Rissents in the commune of  Buissard. The view of the Champsaur valley from this area is stunning and very unspoilt, reflecting the many centuries of farming and rural life. It’s a bit like the rolling landscape of the nicest parts of Hertfordshire or even Devon but with almost Himalayan style mountain ranges in the background. (See photos tagged Susan Lomas-Champsaur on this site).

The walk started with a detour to see the Chapelle de St Bartholemy. Note to self, even when confronted with a heavenly view of a beautiful valley and a gorgeous country church, exclaiming Wow! at the top of one’s voice should probably happen after you’ve verified that people aren’t tending flowers and graves in the churchyard. However, no offence taken and we were offered directions by the lovely local vicar who cryptically said "keep to the path that goes straight on, do not deviate to the left or right". Good advice for life I reckon! The road continued uphill to a place marked with a large wooden cross, we assumed this formed part of Easter processions marking the Stations of the Cross. We then continued our walk passing quite near to the small ski resort of Chaillol following a loop which eventually brought us back  to Les Rissents by a  different route, all the time enjoying the tranquillity of the setting and the timeless views of cows and sheep in the fields.

Afterwards we drove back to St Bonnet and took some photos until our heads froze and our camera batteries gave up! We ran out of time to buy any "Tourtons" which are Champsaur delicacies. Tourtons are square pastry parcels stuffed with cheese, potato or spinach and served warm after deep frying. However there are two very good tourton stalls at the Wednesday market in Briancon so I’ll just have to wait!