Annecy Bauges Loop
A 262 km loop
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Why this ride
Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. 262 km round from Lyon - plan on about 4 h 46 of riding. The plan has 1 food stop marked.
Roadbook
- Lyon
start
Two rivers meet in Lyon, and the whole city arranges itself around them. The Saône comes in from the north, slow and green, under the hill of Fourvière with its white basilica; the Rhône rushes down from Switzerland, wide and fast; and between them lies the Presqu'île, a long peninsula of squares and grand streets that ends at the modern Confluence district. For riders, Lyon is a start and finish more than a destination, but it is a fine one, especially if you arrive hungry.
The Romans founded Lugdunum on Fourvière and made it the capital of Gaul; two Roman theatres still sit on the slope below the basilica. Down by the Saône, Vieux Lyon is one of the largest Renaissance quarters in Europe, built when Lyon was a banking and printing city, and riddled with traboules, covered passages that cut through courtyards from one street to the next. Later the silk workers, the canuts, filled the tall workshops of the Croix-Rousse hill and rose in famous revolts in the 1830s. The Lumière brothers made their first films here, and every December the Fête des Lumières fills the city with light shows.
Food is the city's religion. The bouchons serve heavy, wonderful dishes such as quenelles, andouillette and cervelle de canut, a soft herb cheese whose name means silk weaver's brains, and Lyon has long claimed to be France's gastronomic capital. Beaujolais lies just to the north and the Côtes du Rhône to the south, so the wine is never far away either.
Getting in and out by bike is the less charming part. The ring roads and the tunnels under Fourvière are congested at rush hour, and the city has a low-emission zone, so check the current rules and stickers for your bike before you arrive. Once you escape, the reward is quick. The Annecy and Bauges rides head east over the plain and into the pre-Alps, where the Bauges massif is all limestone cliffs, pasture and quiet D-roads. The Vercors rides go southeast toward Grenoble and the dramatic balcony roads such as the Col de la Machine, where the road is cut into the cliff above the gorges.
Fuel, food and accommodation are plentiful everywhere. Fill up on the outskirts rather than in the centre, where stations are scarce and parking is tight, and save the bouchon dinner for the evening you return.
- Annecy
food
Annecy sits at the northern tip of its lake, with the mountains stacked behind it, and on a clear morning it is one of the prettiest towns in the French Alps. The old centre is a knot of canals, arcaded streets and pastel houses, with a small medieval prison built on an island in the middle of the stream, and the lake beyond is so clean that you can see the bottom a long way out. With around 49,000 people it has everything: fuel, food, repair shops and plenty of places to sleep.
The riding starts at the lake itself. The road around its shore runs through Talloires and Menthon-Saint-Bernard, past old châteaux and stone villages, and then climbs gently through woods before dropping again to the water. It is lovely, and very busy in July and August, when cars and cyclists fill every lay-by. In the shoulder seasons it is a different place altogether, quiet and cool, with clear light on the Dents de Lanfon and the snow just visible on the Tournette. East of the lake the roads climb toward the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, a modest pass of about 1,150 metres with a good view over the water.
The town's history has been shaped by its position, between Geneva, Savoie and the passes to Italy. For centuries it belonged to the counts of Geneva, and later to the dukes of Savoy, and the little château that rises above the old town was theirs. Today it is a place where paragliders gather on the hills and where the lakeside promenade fills each evening with people eating ice cream and watching the light fade.
As a start and finish, Annecy works very well. Early in the morning the town is calm, with delivery vans in the lanes and the smell of bread in the air, and you can be on the mountain roads within twenty minutes. At night the lights of the old town reflect in the canal, and the cafés along the quay stay open late. Book a bed ahead in summer.
- Lyon finish