Saturday 3rd October 2009 – Briancon, France

A very cold night with the thermometer showing 0.4°C at 08:00 but sunny with clear blue skies. On the steep mountain roads yesterday I had a few occasions when the clutch slipped and there were some concerning noises when we pulled off. We descended to the outskirts of Briancon and then took the road up to the Col de Montgenevre, the pass into Italy. As soon as we started climbing it was obvious that the clutch was not what it should be and it was soon slipping considerably. We weren't going to make it up the mountain and we were rapidly approaching a section of hairpin bends, so I pulled off into a lay-by with the intention of turning around and heading back into Briancon to find a garage. It was then that the clutch failed completely and I couldn't engage any gear. Fortunately, we have Saga European Assistance and a call to them was transferred to the AA European desk. We were very impressed when the breakdown truck appeared within about 20 minutes. The mechanic quickly established that there was nothing that he could do by the roadside and we agreed with him that it was the 'embrayage' (clutch). With a tow rope he pulled us to the other side of the road before changing over to a tow bar. It was a very strange feeling steering just a couple of metres behind the truck with the engine running but without using the breaks.
It turned out the the garage was at Chantemerle in the Serre Chevalier just a couple of miles from last night's aire. Here the owner rang the AA and passed over to the multi-lingual operator. She explained that French garages don't work at all at weekends so nothing could be done until Monday morning. The garage owner pushed Henrietta back into a small patch of gravel on the side of the road opposite the garage and made sure that we were comfortable. The AA operator had explained that we could stay there all weekend and that it was a very secure position given that it backed on to a police compound!
We were on a quiet side road in a deep valley with beautiful mountains on three sides and a view across fields to Briancon in front of us. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we sat outside the van and read books. We would have paid good money for such a pitch on a campsite!
We wandered around the area and down into the centre of Chantemerle but found that it was very quiet. It obviously hums in the Winter season with three ski lifts and lots of restaurants but at this time of the year we only saw two open restaurants and a handful of people. Still, we did establish where we could buy bread in the morning.
Photos: The incident – quite a spectacular position to break down!; Being towed down to Chantemerle; The view over Briancon from our pitch – most, if not all, of Briancon's five forts that defended the pass to Italy are visible from here.