Itinerary in the Alps between France and Italy: Mont Cenis and Montgenèvre passes

There are roads older than nations, passes more patient than empires. The route that leads from Modane to Briançon crossing the Mont-Cenis and Montgenèvre passes, crossing Suse, Oulx et Exilles, follows a line of altitude and memory. Here, the military roads pilgrim trails train lines and water curves intertwine to form a thousand-year-old corridor, sometimes a border, sometimes a link. You cross not only the Cottian AlpsBut also vestiges of a world in perpetual flux, between peace, war, trade and culture.

From Modane to the Mont Cenis pass

Modane: border town and alpine crossroads

modane, at an altitude of 1050 meters, is more than just a starting point. It is a crossroads city, embodied frontality, forged in the 19th century by the breakthrough of the Fréjus railway tunnel, inaugurated in 1871, which made it one of the major strategic nodes between France and ItalyBefore that, the site was only a modest hamlet of breeders and farmers, living in the shelter of the rock of Charmaix, the slopes of which today constitute the resort of Valfréjus.

But the arrival of the railway, then that of the military and engineers, transformed Modane into advance post of progress, a modern bastion in the heart of the mountains. The city acquired a monumental train station, villas of notables, and a structured military district. Replaton Fort, just above the town, was built in a hurry after the war of 1870, then integrated into the vast defense system of the Alpine border. Even today, Modane retains traces of this railway and military past: a utilitarian architecture, metal bridges, and even a troglodyte chapel, that of Notre-Dame du Charmaix, embedded in the cliff above Fourneaux.

The road to Val Cenis: gorges, cliffs and hanging forts

Leaving Modane by the D1006, the road winds along the mountainside, carved from schists and limestones, suspended above the Arc. This spectacular section leads towards the Val Cenis plateau, but first requires a passage through one of the most fascinating fortified complexes in the French Alps: the forts of Esseillon.

Built between 1817 and 1834 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia to block Haute-Maurienne from any invasion from France, Esseillon is a cluster of five cascading forts, each named after a member of the royal family: Marie Therese, Victor Emmanuel, Charles-Felix, Charles Albert et Marie-ChristineThese massive works, built in a setting of rocky needles and Scots pines, follow the contours of the gorge, forming a defensive curtain in tiers.

Fort Marie-Thérèse houses a spectacular via ferrata, that of Victor-Emmanuel, a Alpine Fortification Museum.

As we move towards Lanslebourg, the gorges widen, and the mountain softens. The valley opens onto a hanging tray, largely shaped by glaciers, bordered by stone and slate villages. Val Cenis, today a ski resort, was once religious and pastoral crossroadsThere one would come across peddlers, cattle dealers, troops on their way to Italy or to the garrisons of the forts.

Mont-Cenis: a plateau of memory between war, water and reconciliation

As you leave Lanslebourg, the road rises above the valley in long bends, opening onto the high mountain pastures of Mont-Cenis. The landscape changes radically: the rocky bars give way to a vast high-altitude plain, swept by the winds and surrounded by gentle ridges, like a steppe suspended in the sky. It's the Mont Cenis plateau, at an altitude of 2081 m. Its wild beauty contrasts with strategic density of which it was the scene.

Since ancient times, this pass has been one of the busiest routes between France and Italy. The Romans traced the Via Francigena, Napoleon sent his army through it in May 1800 during the Italian campaign. This link between the plains of Piedmont and the heart of the kingdom of France made it a military axis as well as a route for pilgrims and merchants.

At the end of the 19th century, in a context of Franco-Italian tensions, the two states embarked on a race for fortificationOn the Italian side, construction took place between 1877 and 1910. the forts of Ronce, Variselle, Malamot, Pattacreuse and Cassa, all at high altitude, some at over 2800 m, intended to block access to the plateau from France. The structures are impressive in their isolation: Ronce Fort, for example, sits above the lake like a cyclopean castle surrounded by snow. It still bears the scars of the shots of the Second World War, although it was, paradoxically, little or not used during open conflicts.

On the French side, the defenses were concentrated lower down, in the Maurienne valley, but a outpost, Turra Fort, was nevertheless erected on an overhang, between 1888 and 1890, at 2520 m. Built to resist enemy fire and support a high-altitude defense, it is today accessible on foot, and offers a panorama of the plateau and the peaks breathtaking.

But these are the redoubts — small isolated defensive constructions, often octagonal in shape — which give this landscape its uniqueness. Hidden in the folds of the land, they form a discreet network, silent witnesses of a world ready to go to war... but which will never do so here. The Second World War would ultimately see little direct action on the site, although fighting broke out in neighboring areas.

Mont-Cenis Lake: the history of the dam and the pyramid

After the war, military interest in the plateau declined, and a new strategic use emerges: the water. As early as the 1920s, Italy designed a ambitious hydroelectric project aimed at capturing meltwater from the plateau to supply the Turin plain. In 1921, the construction of a arch dam profoundly modifies the site: an artificial lake of more than 6 km² submerges part of the old buildings of the pass, including the inn and the famous Napoleonic hospice.

Paradoxically, this retention infrastructure also becomes a symbol of cooperation. Because if the site was then Italian, water management required consultation between French and Italian engineers. The project culminated in the erection, in 1968, of the Mont Cenis pyramid, an unusual monument of concrete and metal, erected like a sign of peace between the two nations.

Today, Mont-Cenis lake is a place of contemplation as much as a reservoir of energy. Its grassy banks shelter more than 700 plant species, including endemic flora. The place attracts naturalists, hikers and photographers, fascinated by the contrast between the immensity of the sky and the peaceful geometry of the lake.

From the Col du Mont Cenis to the Col de Montgenèvre

The descent to Susa: slides of light and history

Leave on Mont Cenis plateau by its southern slope, it is to initiate a gradual descent into another worldThe light changes. The wind softens. The peaks curve and the stones become warmer, almost ochre. You pass, without any apparent transition, from the harshness of the mountain pasture to the sweetness of a suspended Piedmont.

The road winds through a landscape pastoral and mineral, between rocky spurs, sloping meadows et groves of larches and Swiss pines. Very quickly, perched villages announce themselves — sometimes barely hamlets: moncenisio, Novalesa, Giaglione… Names that sound like forgotten scores. These towns, often spared by mass tourism, retain ancient chapels, trough fountains carved into the granite, mossy washhouses from where we can still hear the rustling of fabrics from yesteryear.

À Novalesa, you have to stop. This peaceful village, nestled against the mountain wall, is home to a Benedictine abbey founded in the 8th century, of rare beauty. The site was for a long time one of the most powerful religious centers of the Carolingian kingdom in Italy. Its cloister, its Romanesque frescoes and its crypts tell a story spirituality rooted in stone and silence. Not far away, the Novalesa waterfalls leap from the heights, spectacular in spring, and envelop the site in a curtain of sea spray.

Further down, the road joins the alluvial plain: we then enter the Susa Valley properly speaking, royal road since Antiquity, a strategic and economic axis for two thousand years. The mountains open up. The spaces breathe. Suse looms.

Susa: Alpine Rome

Suse (Susa in Italian), located at an altitude of 500 meters, at the foot of Mount Rocciamelone, is not just a city of passageIt is a crossroads of civilizations. From the 1st century BC, the city became the capital of Cottian Alps, first ruled by a Celto-Ligurian king, Cottius, then integrated into the Roman Empire. This is evidenced by the ancient monuments, among the best preserved in the Alps.

Upon entering, we are greeted by the Arch of Augustus, erected in 8 BC, celebrating the alliance of King Cottius with the Emperor Augustus. This triumphal arch, sober and powerful, marks the great western gate of the city. At his side, the Roman aqueduct, carved into the rock, still crosses the Dora Riparia in a daring arch.

La via delle Terme, paved with ancient slabs, leads to the ruins of a Roman amphitheater, where gladiatorial combats and political harangues resounded. But Susa is not limited to its Roman past: Countess Adelaide's castle, a medieval fortress transformed over the centuries, dominates the city, overlooking an interlacing of arcaded alleys, Italian squares, baroque fountains.

La San Giusto Cathedral, built on the ruins of a pagan temple, combines Romanity and spirituality, with its Lombard frescoes, sculpted capitals and square bell tower watching over the city. All around, the alleys still shelter artisan workshops, arcaded cafes, bustling markets, in an atmosphere more Mediterranean than mountainous.

Susa was also, throughout the Middle Ages, a unmissable stopover on the Via Francigena, a pilgrimage route linking Canterbury to Rome. This spiritual status leaves in the city an imprint of openness, tolerance, and an art of detail in the hospices, the wall inscriptions, the symbols engraved in the stone.

Detour to Oulx: the crossroads

Leaving Susa, the road turns northeast, following the sweeping curves of the Dora Riparia. The landscape tightens again. The slopes become closer, more mineral, and the hamlets seem to cling to the rock. We cross Meana of Susa, Salbertrand, and little by little the vegetation changes: Corsican pine forests, high-altitude meadows, hazelnut hedges announce the approach of a harsher, more alpine world.

Then comes Oulx, perched at 1100 meters. In Antiquity, this town was an important Roman roadhouse, starting point of the via Cozia, which crossed the Alps to reach Embrun. Later, it became a religious and administrative hub on the Via Francigena. Even today, the remains of the Roman gate fragments of ancient wall in the church of Saint Laurent, the corbelled houses bear witness to the historical richness of the place.

But Oulx is not static. The Saturday market is famous for its mountain products (alpine cheeses, dry sausages, chestnuts, honey from the Hautes Vallées) and its artisanal potteryThe sloping streets lead to small belvederes, from where you can contemplate the valley and see, in the distance, the powerful silhouette of the Exilles Fort.

Exilles: Fortress of Shadows and Legends

The road leaves Oulx and follows the Dora for about ten kilometers until Exilles, an austere village, leaning against the mountain like a lookout. Here, the landscape suddenly closes in : A glacial lock, narrowing the valley between two high cliffs, was considered strategic since the Middle Ages.

This is where the Exilles Fort, true military lock of the Cottian AlpsIt was constantly modified over the centuries, in the hands of the Savoy and the French, and took its definitive form in the 18th century: triangular ramparts, bastions carved into the rock, labyrinths of corridors and casematesHe guarded the valley like a jawbone.

The legend of iron mask, a famous prisoner whose identity was never revealed, adds a mysterious aura to the fortress. It is said that he was held there before being transferred to the Bastille. Today, the fort is open to visitors, offering a diving into defensive architecture and Team exceptional panoramas on the valley and the surrounding ridges.

The village of Exilles, although discreet, is worth a visit. Old houses with slate roofs, baroque chapel, communal ovens recall the harsh life of the Piedmontese mountaineers. There are also an ethnographic museum, modest but moving, which tells of rural exile, transhumant shepherds, the fight against snow and fire.

Ascent to the Montgenèvre pass: the oldest transalpine road

Leaving Exilles, the road climbs again, following the curves of the mountain. You enter a more open territory, bathed in alpine light, where the sparse forests give way to hanging meadows. This climb towards the Montgenèvre pass, at an altitude of 1860 meters, follows a route steeped in history: the oldest known transalpine road in Europe, frequented since the Celtic era.

La Domitian Way, built under the Roman Empire to connect Italy to Narbonne Gaul, passed through here. The Romans left milestones, remains of paving, and above all a tenacious memory: that of a millennial strategic axis, also borrowed by Hannibal's troops according to some historians, then by pilgrims, merchants, and armies of all ages.

This section, little known to the major tourist circuits, nevertheless has some of the most typical villages of the Piedmontese side. Cesana Torinese, first, nestled at the confluence of two torrents, is arranged around a Romanesque church with twin bell towers, with its Italianate arcades and its houses with whitewashed plaster. Then comes Keyboard, a small high-altitude village nestled at 1760 meters, which seems to float between two worlds: the silence of the mountain on the one hand, waiting for the pass on the other. Surrounded by dense forests, secret clearings and ski slopes in winter, Clavière is also a place of memory, facing the Chaberton ridges.

It was there, at over 3100 meters, that one of the craziest fortresses in Alpine military history was erected: the fort of Mont Chaberton. Built between 1898 and 1910 by the Italian army, this fort perched at the very summit of Mount — the highest artillery fort in Europe —aimed to dominate the Briançon Valley. Eight steel turrets were installed there in the open air, capable of striking the French forts on the other side of the pass. But the position, strategic as it was, was also terribly vulnerable.

In June 1940, at the very end of the "Phoney War", Chaberton becomes the stake of a unique battle : French cannons hastily installed on the slopes of Janus and Gondran return fire from their camouflaged shelters. rain of shells is precise, implacable. In a few hours, six of the eight Italian turrets are silenced. The pride of the summit collapses in the mists of a high-altitude storm. The Battle of Chaberton will go down in history as the first Italian military defeat of World War II – but above all, as a duel between peaks, frozen in the mountain pastures.

Today, the ruins of the fort, accessible to seasoned hikers, are still visible from the road. They tell, in their metallic silence, the absurdity of high altitude conquests.

From the Col de Montgenèvre to Briançon

Today the road is lined with grassy slopes where herds graze, high-altitude chalets, and large apartment buildings for rent or hotels which enliven the village of Montgenèvre, the oldest French ski resort still in operation, founded in 1907. But behind the tourist image, the pass remains a symbolic high place : A crossing point, a threshold, a place of transition between Italy and France, between history and nature.

The view is superb: South, the summits of Clarée; West, the ridges of Cervières and the Grandes Alpes; North, the Italian peaks still blue in the clear morning air.

From the heights of the Montgenèvre pass, at 1860 meters, the road bends in gentle bends, lined with larches and Swiss pines. Here, the landscape seems to open up suddenly: the upper Guisane valley spreads out before your eyes, framed by the slopes of Prorel and Grand Aréa. The light changes. The sky becomes wider, more southerly, and in this new clarity appears, below, the proud silhouette of Briançon, erected on its rocky promontory.

The descent towards Briançon

But before reaching it, the road crosses a world suspended between mountain and memory. ancient forts of Janus and Gondran, visible on the ridges, still evoke the French resistance to the fire of Chaberton. On the left, the Pont de l'Alp redoubt, a forgotten remnant of a much larger defensive line, blends into the meadow. To the right, the old village of Alberts, a hamlet of wood and slate, reminds us that man, here, has always known how to adapt to the relief. It is the entrance to the magnificent Clarée Valley.

Then comes the Saint-Pancrace junction, and from a bend the city is born: Briançon, a solar fortress, built on several floors. The modern lower town quickly gives way to the Vauban city, surrounded by bastions, topped with bell towers, perched like a lookoutYou cross the Pignerol gate, and enter a maze of medieval alleys, paved with pebbles, crossed by gargoyles, these channels dug into the stone to channel water from torrents and storms.

Here, military genius marries urban beauty : star-spangled bastions, suspension bridges between mountains, escapes to the Southern Alps. The Fort of the Heads, Asfeld Bridge, Fort Dauphin draw around the city a defensive collar unique in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And yet, the city is not set in stone: she breathes, she lives, with its bookstores, its terraces, its artisan workshops, its departing hikers.

Briançon, the citadel of the Alps

Briançon, at an altitude of 1326 meters, is the highest city in France. But it is above all a mountain citadel, designed from the 17th century as strategic lock of the Hautes-Alpes, at the hinge between Provence, Piedmont and Dauphiné. Vauban, military engineer of Louis XIV, erected there star-shaped ramparts, bastions et redoubts, some of which (like the Salettes redoubt or Fort of the Heads) are now classified as Unesco World Heritage.

The old center, surrounded by walls, is a maze of sloping alleys, pebble stairs, of basin fountains, where the tall houses with colorful facades seem suspended between sky and stone. The Asfeld Bridge Canal, built more than 50 m above the Durance, links two fortifications in an architectural gesture of absolute audacity.

But Briançon is not just about military genius. It is also a spa town, a cultural melting pot, a sentinel of the Alps where we still hear Occitan, Italian and French spoken in the same breath. The terraces, the steps, old bookstores, coffees installed on the old parapets... Everything invites you to stroll, read, and take a break.

Crossing the Alps from Modane to Briançon, Via the forgotten forts, ancient cities, the thousand-year-old passes, it's not just about following a road. It's follow a thread of history, crest wire, where each turn tells of an era, each summit a memory. It is traveling in a territory where the stones spoke before menWhere the valleys still whisper the forgotten languages, and where the roads were never just linesMore powerful bonds between peoples, worlds and souls.

Photo credit Esseillon: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aussois_-_Les_forts_de_l%27Esseillon_-_Fort_Victor-Emmanuel_-2.JPG / MOSSOT, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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