Home » I’m not going to be traveling on these roads any time soon

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I’m not going to be traveling on these roads any time soon — 14 Comments

  1. Ah, memories! Long ago, before I knew any better, sometime in the late, late 1970s I actually drove this road in a Peugeot sedan …

    http://vercorstv.wmaker.tv/Les-Routes-du-Vercors_v541.html

    “It might look like a traveler’s paradise, but this picturesque road is counted amongst the most dangerous in the world. Known as les Grands Goulets and built between 1843 and 1854, the legendary route is carved out of the cliffs of Vercors, a massif of mountains in the Rhé´ne alpes region of France. After 156 years of leading travellers through the mountains by its winding and narrow road, the French government were forced to permanently close the historic road in 2005 after a series of fatal accidents.”

    http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/10/03/the-forbidden-road-of-the-french-alps/

    I think it took a half an hour after arriving in Vercours before my hands would unclench from the steering wheel.

  2. That’s a rather chilling video. I’m not a great fan of the visuals – these distracting montage effects that the overexcited production crew slathered on – but the deadpan voiceover is effective, even if it seems to betray a youthful accent.

    I was amused by the description of that road in the Himalayas, I think it was, with respect to the altitude of “about” 11,578 feet or whatever it was. Such precision in the number, and yet… “about”!

  3. Oh, Neo, your last directive reminds me of something. Around here, over in Schenectady, there’s a funny multidirectional interchange near the main GE plant that I’ve heard called occasionally in grandiose manner “the Circle of Death”. The thing is that it’s not a circle – more of an oval – and it’s really not very deadly as far as I know. I found this article about a pending rebuild. I drive that once every few weeks, but never during rush hour, which is probably why I’ve missed out on whatever excitement there is to be had there.

  4. Driving through Death Valley requires care in the summer. As I recall, there’s a bunch of roadside warnings that you should make sure you have enough radiator fluid. The last time I went through there (maybe 20 years ago), it was summer but a rare rain had happened recently and the plant life had gone into high speed bloom. Recently, death by GPS apparently is a thing.

  5. Wow, sounds like some of those roads could be nearly as dangerous as driving through a rotary in Boston.

  6. Funny. A lot of them looked like the Apache Trail in Arizona. The drop offs aren’t quite a thousand feet but after the first hundred or so it doesn’t make much difference.

  7. By the way, Neo when she seeks a politics break, could do a movie favorites list of some kind. Her favorite “overlooked films”, her favorite critically acclaimed but commercial flop films, her favorite atmospheric films, … along with the hows and the whys.

    No musicals please …

  8. Yancey, right in front of you every day. All you have to do is take a step. There is a step in a different direction that will avoid it… but the road less traveled, etc.

  9. Gah – that reminds me of when I drove the coastal road from Salerno to Positano … sob! It looked like the shortest and easiest route to the place where I had a hotel reservation, after departing from Athens via the ferry from Patras to Brindisi.
    It was … seriously scary. A narrow two-lane road, along a ledge about two-thousand feet up a sheer cliff-face above the ocean, zig-zagging along and meeting horrifically large tour buses coming the other way and about half their bulk OVER THE CENTER LINE! Yeah, I was a quivering wreck when I got to the hotel in Positano, but the management was magnificent.
    They made me a salad for lunch, with a pitcher of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and told me to go down and relax on the beach and not to even THINK about going anywhere else for that day.

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