Monday June 15 - Today we drove from Tignes over the now open Col d'Iseran (2740m) into the next valley and then over the Col du Telegraph to our next residence at Serre Chevalier. This area is prime Tour de France territory and, if you've ever watched the Tour, you've probably seen our village. Serre Che, as it's called, is a string of ski villages that cluster around the base of the Serre Chevalier massif. Our village is Chantemerle and is about 6km from the medium-sized town of Briancon. As the crow flies, we are about 7-8 miles from Italy. Being so close to a functioning metropolis of sorts makes life fairly easy. Briancon has several supermarkets, hardware and sporting goods stores (natch!), restaurants, and a computer store that has seen our trade on several occasions.
On our way to Serre Che we had our picnic at le Redoute Marie-Therese, which is a type of fortification that was built for the Italians by the French. Throughout history the French-Italian border has shifted, first one way, then the other way, then back again, so one finds bits of history on one side or the other or even straddling the current border.
Unlike Tignes, Serre Che is below the tree line and the area is full of wonderfully green deciduous trees as well as evergreens. We desert rats truly enjoy the green and the numerous tumbling waterfulls. The area had more snow than usual this winter so many of the upper slopes are still white.
The apartments (studios, really) in our building have a view of the massif of Serre Che. During one of our 2-week segments here the view from our balcony is up the valley and during the other, toward Briancon and the mountains beyond. Briancon is at the junction of 5 valleys and the hiking possibilities are great! It's also an area that has numerous fortifications built over several centuries to guard the (shifting) border with Italy. The most recent of these date to WWII.

Wednesday June 17 - Yesterday, our first day at Serre Che, was a shopping/errand day and today we were eager to stretch our legs. We drove to the 20 minutes up to the Col de Granon (2471m), which lies opposite the Serre Che massif and above our village. It, too, was a former border fortification and has a gently sloping rocky road that was used to transport materials to the fort. Whereas we usually hike from bottom to top, in this case we started our hike at the top of the Col and walked about 4 miles down the road, then back up, which meant we were tired puppies by the time we got to the car! But the views are so worth the effort!!