Over a ridge to a lake and a town

The route is now east into the mountains - to Chambéry. This means leaving the Rhône and getting across the Mont du Chat. Here's the view from Yenne of the top of the ridge, about 1500m high, at the end of another blistering hot afternoon. 

But I sneak over the col just out of view to the north, involving a much more modest climb, accompanied by Patrick and Judy, on their way home to Brittany. Left to their own devices, they would surely have gone over the top! And on the other side is France's largest natural lake, Lac du Bourget, with Aix-les-Bains beyond. Note the delicious cool grey cloud - I even put a jersey on later in the evening. Aah...

And so to Chambéry at the southern end of the lake where Patrick and Judy proceed on their way. 

Were this the first half of the 19th century my walking would have been over too - I would have left French soil. This part of Savoy was only definitively incorporated into France in 1860, the last Duke becoming the first King of the newly unified Italy. (Suitably, Chambéry is twinned with Turin.) As it is, the Massif des Bauges lies ahead, running up to about 2,000m, and higher stuff yet after that. 

But for the moment a rest day and Chambéry is a good place to spend it. The centre of town has a relaxed feel to the idle visitor. Fine tall buildings with shuttered windows and the mountains often seen at the end of a street. The red flag with a cross is the Savoy flag, everywhere in evidence.