Vauban built this in a hurry, and you can feel the urgency in the plan. After the Duke of Savoy invaded Dauphiné in 1692, Louis XIV's great military engineer chose a spur of rock above the meeting of the Durance and the Guil rivers and laid out a fortified town on a strict grid, with ramparts, bastions and a parade ground. Mont-Dauphin was meant to close the Durance valley to any army coming from Italy, and it is one of the twelve groups of Vauban fortifications that UNESCO listed in 2008. The buildings are in a rosy-grey marble from the nearby quarries of Guillestre, and in evening light they glow like embers.
The fortress sits at about a thousand metres, on the road that leads into the Queyras, and the mountains rise on all sides, with snow on the highest peaks until early summer. It is a place of wind and swallows, with a few craft shops, a cafe or two and a lot of empty parade ground. Walk the ramparts and look south, where the Durance valley bends toward Embrun and the Lac de Serre-Ponçon. The streets were laid out for soldiers, not shoppers, so the town has a spare, geometric beauty.
For riders, Mont-Dauphin is a gate to some of the finest roads in the Alps. Guillestre, two kilometres away, is the start of the climb to the Col de Vars and the Col d'Izoard, and the road up the Guil through the Combe du Queyras has tunnels cut through the rock and hairpins above a gorge. The Col Agnel, which crosses to Italy at 2,744 metres, is another of the area's great passes. All of these high passes close for the winter, usually from about November until late spring, so check before you plan. Expect cyclists, motorhomes in summer and sudden thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Guillestre has fuel and a few supermarkets, and Embrun, sixteen kilometres downstream, is bigger. Fill the tank before heading into the Queyras, because the villages up the valley are small. Local specialities include walnut tart, mountain cheeses and a hearty tartiflette. The sun is strong at this altitude, so wear sunscreen, and carry a warm layer for the passes.