PHOTOGRAPHS · ROAD TRIP

MINI.

A drive with my cameras.

Words and photographs: Doytcheva

The MINI on the road between the statue of Saint Bernard and the hospice, surrounded by mountains with patches of snow.
The hospice and statue of Saint Bernard at the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass.

I wanted to go for a drive and take photographs. I had a MINI Cabrio John Cooper Works, all in black. A good match, since I only wear black.

The black MINI in front of the hospice façade, with its inscription and red window frames.
The façade of the Petit-Saint-Bernard hospice.
Black-and-white aerial view of a winding mountain road between grass and snow.
The bends.

I took my drone and all my cameras, and set off from Chamonix. Into Italy, then up to the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass. Bends, lakes, the hospice. And the cows of Megève on the way back.

A brown cow facing the camera in a meadow in Megève.
The cows of Megève.
The black MINI on a tree-lined road in Saint-Gervais, in black and white.
Saint-Gervais.
The MINI badge on black bodywork reflecting the clouds.
MINI, in black.
A lake, the surrounding mountains and pink clouds in the sky.
A lake on the way up to the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass.
A vertical view of hairpin bends in wooded terrain in Italy.
The Italian road after Courmayeur, towards La Thuile.
Black-and-white portrait of Jaime standing in front of a herd of cows in Megève.
With the cows in Megève.
A red-and-white aircraft in front of the hangar at Megève’s mountain airfield.
Megève’s mountain airfield.
Vertical view of the road leading to the Petit-Saint-Bernard hospice, with the statue on the left.
The Petit-Saint-Bernard pass.
Jaime in the open-top MINI, wearing a beanie and black sunglasses, in front of the hospice.
A selfie on arriving at the pass.
The MINI on a road beside a lake, below mountains still partly covered in snow.
Before the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass.
Black-and-white vertical view of the MINI on a bridge in Saint-Gervais.
Saint-Gervais.
Map of the route from Chamonix back to Chamonix, via Courmayeur, La Thuile, the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass, Cormet de Roselend and Megève.
Chamonix · Courmayeur · La Thuile · Petit Saint-Bernard · Cormet de Roselend · Megève · Chamonix
Reconstructed route. Open the full-size map ↗

AN ASIDE

The Petit-Saint-Bernard hospice

The hospice offered food and shelter to travellers crossing the pass. Its foundation in the 11th century is traditionally attributed to Saint Bernard, archdeacon of Aosta. The building was rebuilt several times, then devastated during the Second World War. It reopened in 1995.

The statue in front of the hospice depicts Saint Bernard. It was inaugurated on 31 July 1902.

Sources: History of the hospice; Italian Alpine Club’s Rivista mensile, August 1902.