“Routes of the Grande Alpes”

Summit of Col du Bonnet

The Route des Grande Alpes is a made in heaven set of linked roads that wind their way through the French Alps. These roads are also always on the Tour de France (Climbing section). And of course you will recognize names like Albertville, Chamonix, Mont Blanc and Val D’Isere, as ski destinations. They are all on this route or within 20 kms. And the made in heaven is because they nearly reach it!


Day 1 saw us head up from the coast through Sospel to ride the Col de Bonnet a 2802 M. pass. The day was sunny and warm. The scenery is spectacular even when you aren’t on a pass run but the passes are beautiful. Col De Bonnet once you get above the tree line becomes quite stark and it was good but not the Oh Wow! we had come to expect.  We did really enjoy Col de Vars though, much more interesting scenery from our view though the pass wasn’t as high.

Perched Church in Mountains

By comparison, we have ridden the highest pass between NA and Europe in the Beartooth pass at 10498 ft. (3340M) it stands quite a bit taller, however it still doesn’t hold the interest of some other routes. Transfargarasan to this point (Day 1) is still tops, not because of elevation but because of all the scenery, history and intrigue factors. We could imagine army tanks being hidden from view in tunnels, and closed off military bases masking the entrances.


We stayed the night in Briancon at an IBIS there that gave us their promotion offer for Motos, that was great.

Architecture in France is gorgeous

Day 2 saw us leave Briancon while it was still cool and head over Col Lauteret (2058M) and then Col du Galiber (2642M). Col Galiber was very intimidating since there are no guard rails and the road is laid out so you can’t see the edges. I shot full video of this ride and it is very wild.


Then onto Col Du telegraphe(1566M) and then Col de Iseran near Val D’Isere. This was the most spectacular one we have ridden from a scenery perspective. Elevations are great, well above the tree line for  a long time and well engineered roads.

View from Col du Caliber

Vstrom at summit of L'Iseran

As we descended from there we could see this village well below us and wondered how the %^$#@ do we get there from here. We were right over top of it but 1100M up.


Well we did on some of the wildest switchbacks you’ve seen, including banked corners so you stay on the road. Unfortunately there were also off-camber corners that lean in the wrong direction. You do have to be careful.

High Alpine Lake

Actually what we saw first thing this morning as we drove towards one of the summits was a woman in a car turn off the road to go down a country lane and high centre her car so it stopped dead with the back end out on the highway and the front down the driveway, but the left rear wheel spinning in the air. Only in these mountains do they engineer stuff like that.

Fort of St Therese just pops out around
corner

Church Front Statue

Now we interrupt this ride to point out another stunning location close by that we fell in love with in 2015. 

Lacets - near St Jean Maurienne

That ride is here. https://vstromadventures.blogspot.com/2015/09/france-lacets-col-de-madelaine-col-de.html

Please continue on to Day 3

Elevation info

Day 3

Lake Geneva Castle near Lausanne Switzerland

We overnighted in Megeve at a nice modest hotel amidst some 5 star resorts that apparently have attracted the rich and famous. We stopped here by chance and ended up finding out it’s the top ski resort in Europe. I guess Saudi prince’s , the Rothschilds, and many Hollywood stars have places here. Sandra looked at the real estate listings and saw a modest chalet selling for 5 Million Euros. I think we might be able to afford a bathroom in the place, no wait, a walk-in closet.


We headed north to finish the Grande Alpes route and went over the final pass in the fog. We expected to see rain, but it was clear and sunny. Just our luck, it’s still holding.
At Evian, yes the famous water place we turned east and went around Lake Geneva. it’s not worth it, since it is developed so much you can’t enjoy riding. It’s stop and go traffic.

Waterwheels in Vollarbe are still working

Vollarbe is a gorgeous village

Our scenery luck changed though when we got to Vollarbe, a small village on the Swiss/ France border. What a beautiful little village with many historic water wheels and village buildings that make up a town core. 

Fortress near Pontalier France

We headed on to Pontalier and saw more fortresses and castles there than in the past several weeks. This part of France is so beautiful and we are glad we are somewhat retracing our steps here. The french roads again are very well engineered for enjoying by motorcycle.