Le Sentier du Baroque

Having walked a loop that nearly took in St Nicolas de Véroce earlier in the week today we drove back up to this beautiful little village perched high on the side of Mont Joly to walk another section  of the Sentier du Baroque - in full its a 20km historical walk linking some of the churches & chapels that are a famous feature of this area. Not normally my sort of thing - but the scenery is amazing (see extra) - and the churches, whatever your viewpoint, are quite simply fabulous works of art.

The village itself can be traced back to the 10th Century - the present church's foundation stone was laid in 1726 - and for many years it was a very important place on the merchants trail from Geneva over the high passes to the Vanoise & beyond.  Whilst the outside of the church carries some decoration to the roof eaves that is typical of the style it is relatively austere - the same however couldn't be said of the inside. 

Perhaps the most striking feature, certainly the one that struck me as I admired it from the gallery, was the famous "blue of St Nicolas" that the vaulted ceiling was painted in 1856 - so as to reflect the majesty of the natural world outside & create the impression of being open to the sky. If you take a look at today's extra I think you'll agree they got it pretty spot on.

Today's extra has Mont Vorassay in the foreground (a lovely tough variant on the TMB for confident walkers) and the Col de Miage 1& Aiguille de Tricot behind.