Gap is the highest prefecture in France, sitting at about seven hundred and fifty metres in a wide, sunny basin in the Hautes-Alpes, with mountains on every side. People often ride through it without more than a glance, which is a pity, because the town, with some forty thousand people, makes a comfortable halt on a mountain route: fuel stations at every entrance, supermarkets, a pleasant old centre with a pedestrian core, and cafés where you can sit in the sun. The Alpine light is strong here and the air dry, with something like three hundred days of sunshine a year, a figure the town likes to repeat.
The Route Napoléon passes through. On 5 March 1815, after landing on the Riviera, Napoleon came into Gap with a small band of soldiers, on his way north to Paris, and was received warmly by the townspeople. The road he took, now the N85, climbs north to the Col Bayard, at about 1,250 metres, and then drops through the high valleys toward Grenoble, with good bends, alpine meadows and views over the Écrins massif to the east. Nearly every village on the way has a plaque or a statue of the emperor, and in the Matheysine the road passes the Prairie de la Rencontre, where he met a battalion sent to arrest him and bared his chest to them, as the story goes.
The riding on the Route Napoléon is a mixture of fast, open sweepers and tighter climbs, on generally good surfaces, with plenty of traffic in July and August. Early morning is best. Snow can linger on the Col Bayard into April and fresh falls are possible in October, so the road is a late-spring to early-autumn affair. Wind is frequent in the Gap basin, and thunderstorms build over the ridges on hot afternoons.
East of the town the road runs to the huge reservoir of Serre-Ponçon, a very bright blue lake among the mountains, and a worthwhile detour. In the town itself, the cathedral and the markets are worth a short walk, and local specialities include walnut cakes, lamb from the high pastures, and a flat bread called the pompe. Fill your tank before you head north, because the mountain villages are small.