Torino to Le Monêtier-les-Bains

Greetings from the Auberge du Choucas.   This place is as cute as its pictures.  Sooooooooo cute.  I swear I'm becoming my mother.  Instead of appreciating the cuteness, I bemoan the fact that there are only four lamps in here and I can't see anything.  Fortunately we brought an LED flashlight to look for bedbugs (none found so far) which has helped considerably with map reading, finding underwear in the sarcophagus we call a suitcase and so forth and so on.  I highly recommend traveling with a flash light.
This photo is from one of the bridges over the Po in Torino.  The tall spire is the Museum of Cinema.  It's an imposing structure.

 

This morning we were up and out to Le Monêtier-les-Bains.  It's slightly northwest of Briancon.  We're in the Alps.  On the way, we drove up to Sestriere to look at a hill that is frequently ridden on the Tour de France.  Steep, long, gruesome.  There's a ski station at the top.
 

 

An Alp.

 

Another Alp.  I need a better camera to do the mountains justice.

 

The Italian-French border.  No one is in the border crossing building.  I love that.

 

This is the entrance to the Auberge.  It's very old, I believe the owner was on site, if not the owner, she really loves the place.  It is very old and very cute.  I would take a picture of the room's cuteness, but we have strewn our stuff all over it.

 

Tomorrow we plan to go look at some of the mountain passes ridden by the Tour.  The lady at the desk was all fired up to rent us bikes so we could ride the passes, but we declined.  Too high!  Too tired.
I am glad to be back in France.  I took French for four years in college, and some of it actually stuck.  Italian just will not stay in my head.  So here I can read road signs and order food.  It's a good thing.