Tour of Mt Blanc

Sat Sept 8 we began the tour around Mt Blanc which would actually take us 2 days and 3 countries to complete. The beginning point was a small town in Switzerland, Aigle and we started south toward Martigny. Soon after we crossed back into France at Vallorcine, continued through Chamonix and the day ended near the town of Beaufort in a campground called Le Reclus. The ride was a zigzag up one side of a mountain and a zigzag down the other side, then across a small valley and repeat the pattern. In the US I have ridden a couple of short stretches that had this level of switchback but nothing that continues for 40-50 miles like they do here. One mountain pass after another through the course of the day and tomorrow is a repeat of the last.
Sun. we managed a ride over the petite St Bernard and the Grand St Bernard mountain passe,s which we believe got their names from the breed of dog that carried the barrel of rum to assist stranded trekkers. The route took us into Italy and at the border there was a dog being used to sniff out contraband. Being the innocent looking folks we are they not only didn't use the dog on our vehicles, they didn't even look at the Passports. Along we went on to Acosta and worked our way back to Martigny back in Switzerland at which point we turned east passing through Sion, Leuk, Brig and finished and a nice campground in between Oberwald and Gletsch.
A few years ago on a visit to Silverton, Co Deb and I managed a wonderful drive in a 4x4 up gravel mountains roads to the top of the mountains there. The difference is that here they pave the roads and we can ride to the top.
Mon we had a short distance to get to the camp we will spend 2 nights at. Even the short distance, only 50 miles all day, took us a few hours as again it is zigzag to the top of a mountain and back down again through switchbacks that in the US would be labeled as 10mph curves. Here is one example of the type of roads we are riding.

There are other times we are riding roads not much wider than a cart path where they have small turn outs every 100 yards or so that people can use to avoid oncoming traffic.
Note that I have included a photo here. The number of amazing photos we are taking has made it impossible to keep up with and get posted on the Picasa Web Site. I have decided we will make an effort to select a few and add them in with links to more coming when we have a chance to catch up. This next photo shows the road zigzagging down the side of the mountain and is a great example of how we are spending the  majority of our day.

Hope you are enjoying the journey, we most definitely are. The scenery has been fantastic and at times it feels like we are flying we are so high above the villages below. Equally interesting is the number of villages built on the side of the mountain. We seem to find a new one about every 1000 feet we climb.