Briancon, Alps 2025: Day 5 – rest day in town
Rest days. You rarely hear about them but with heavy rain predicted and tired legs it was time to maximise the holiday side of our trip.
Mind you, the Prof was having none of it. He had brought his wet weather gear and he was going to use it! While he headed off Thursday morning to head back up the Prorel telecabins, we kicked back because the weather was awful all morning.
We wandered down to the New Town for a light lunch, hampered only by the worst portion of chips I had all week (note, this pizza pic was from our first meal of the week, showing all five of us).
As the day progressed, the weather improved markedly, so after lunch John and I decided to visit the Old Town at the top of the hill while Elliot contented himself with local bike shops.
Lloyd meanwhile headed to the supermarket for provisions – and wine – for the evening meal he had offered to cook for us.
Briancon is effectively a fortress town, dating to Roman times when it was known as Brigantium. In the 17th century it’s fortifications were expanded by Vauban during the time of Louis XIV. It won’t rehearse too much of it’s history because you can read all about Briancon on Wikipedia.
The Old Town is relatively small with very steep streets and reasonable restaurents – both from the point of view of food and entertainment.
At one point during the week a restaurent owner sang us the God Save the King, at another we got chatting to a British owner who had lived there for many years. And then there was the punk buskers mangling well known tunes from the hit parade (a very old hit parade at that)…
We regrouped in the evening for a fine meal, some fine wine and to celebrate the Prof’s return in one piece.
Bikes. You don’t have to ride them.
Every cyclist loves coffee!
☕Buy Matt a coffeeThere are 5 replies to Matt so far
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September 15, 2025 at 2:39 pm
Elliot says:
I might have considered joining the Prof for an afternoon ride, post rain. But definitely not while it was pissing down in the morning, complete with thunder. Plus I was a bit lacking in wet weather gear, other than a jacket.
Most of the bike shops seemed to be off season ski hire establishments looking a reason to keep the doors open through summer. There were a couple of decent ones, with Mountain Cycles on the way out of town being the biggest and best stocked. Albeit I was hoping to come across something more interesting than the usual mainstream brands we get at home on my tour of bike shops, but came away largely disappointed.
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September 15, 2025 at 3:46 pm
Lloyd says:
Rest day came a day too late for me. First 3 days were great but had emptied the tank and the hip needed a rest. Trying to push through day 4 because day 5 was going to be a write off was a mistake. I shall remember that next year.
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September 15, 2025 at 11:17 pm
Matt says:
In an ideal world, a Wednesday pause would have be perfect but I think avoiding Thursday morning’s weather was the right choice. I’d have liked to ride every day but definitely needed a recharge myself.
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September 15, 2025 at 11:16 pm
Matt says:
Your bike shop disappointment at least saved you from further expenditure 🙂
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September 15, 2025 at 11:43 pm
Elliot says:
I definitely need to reel in expenditure for a little while, but did ‘window-shop’ some Ergon grips, which are now on the Fairlight waiting for its first ride.
Annoyingly the latest redesigned GS1 grips are causing the hand pain they’re intended to alleviate, so will give the GA3 a go.
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