The Pont de Croë-Vie

The Pont de Croé-Vie, literally meaning “wrong path” in Patois, dates a priori to the seventeenth century. It is a semicircular single-arch bridge with whitewashed stones and a paved roadway. This construction is unique because of the decking height (in relation to floods) and the existence of parapets. The presence of this masonry bridge testifies to the strategic importance of the salt road, because a simple wooden bridge would have sufficed! The bridge was restored by the Vanoise National Park in 2008. It was an historical commercial and military crossing-point between the valleys of Tarentaise and Maurienne. The “salt and cheese road” took this narrow, bad route, leading on one side to the Col de la Vanoise and the Salines royales de Moûtiers, and from the other side to the Termignon cheeses and Italian spices.