Alpine Roads
The Petit St Bernard Pass
The top of the pass
On this page, we continue the climb we began on the previous page. We are generally above the tree line, and the landscape is now fairly open. The clouds are clearing, and it is turning into a nice day. In these conditions, it is easy to forget that the pass can be closed for up to 9 months of the year.
In the third picture, we see the statue of St Bernard, the patron saint of the Alps, and beyond that, the hostel at the top of the pass.
After passing the hostel, there is a short drive to a few more buildings on the French side of the pass. Outside one of these (the middle picture below) there is a souvenir stall, and one of those sign posts with distances to far away places on them. We stopped further along, and as I thought I could probably live without visiting the souvenir stall and sign post, the only detail I can record here is that the sign post included Moscow on it.
In the final picture on this page, there is an international frontier. Where the centre line on the road stops, you cross into Italy. We saw the redundant frontier buildings - these days the border is marked with a couple of signs. The Italian one is visible in the picture.
