Gorges du Verdon Grand Loop
A 237 km loop
Open this ride in the planner →
Why this ride
A proper escape from Nice with roads worth waking up for. 237 km round from Lucéram - plan on about 4 h 18 of riding. The stops in between: Scenic stretch near Menton, Antibes and Saint-Laurent-du-Var. Cap-d'Ail is the high point. It tops out at about 1,500 m. It crosses France, Italy and Monaco - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Lucéram
fuel
Fuel at 0 km.
- Scenic stretch near Menton
scenic
Menton is the last town in France before Italy, the finish of the Route des Grandes Alpes, and after seven hundred kilometres of mountains it feels like being tipped into a warm bath. The old town tumbles down a hill to the harbour in tones of ochre, apricot and cream, topped by the baroque Basilica of Saint Michael with its glowing facade. The climate is the mildest on the French Riviera, sheltered by the mountains behind, and the local lemons are famous, celebrated each February in the Fête du Citron, when huge sculptures made of fruit and flowers fill the gardens and people parade through the streets.
The town has a gentle, slightly faded elegance, a place where Victorian visitors came for their health and a gaggle of grand villas still look out over the water. Jean Cocteau, the writer and artist, decorated the registry office in the town hall, and a museum of his work stands on the seafront. A short walk away, the gardens of Garavan, planted with exotic trees and flowers, benefit from a warmth that few other places in France can match. The Italian border is just beyond, close enough to walk, and many people cross for lunch.
The final ride down the mountain is the real subject. Many riders arrive from the Col de la Bonette, at 2,715 metres the highest paved pass in France when including its extra loop, or from the Col de Vars, at 2,109 metres. The descent toward the coast winds through high pastures, then narrow gorges, then pine and chestnut forest, before finally dropping through olive groves and terraced hillsides toward the sea. Along the way, perched villages such as Sainte-Agnès, at about eight hundred metres the highest coastal village in Europe, cling to rocky crests above the bay, with narrow lanes and glorious views. The temperature climbs as the road falls, and a rider can go from a frosty morning to a hot afternoon in a few hours.
Practical matters are easy in a town of nearly thirty thousand. Fuel stations line the approach roads, and there are cafes and restaurants all along the seafront. Traffic along the coast is heavy in summer, and parking is tight, so look for a secure garage. Pastry shops sell tarte au citron, and the local speciality is socca, a thin chickpea pancake, or pissaladière, an onion tart. Treat yourself with a swim: it is the tradition at the end of this journey.
- Cap-d'Ail
pass
Cap-d'Ail is the last French town before Monaco, and you can feel the principality pressing against it. The Basse Corniche winds in from Èze and Beaulieu between villas and pines, the rocks drop to clear water below, and then, almost without warning, you are among the towers of Fontvieille. Cap-d'Ail itself is quieter than its neighbour: a scatter of Belle Époque villas, gardens and newer apartments on the slopes above a small cape with coves and a little beach.
The best thing here is on foot. The sentier du littoral, the coastal path, runs around the cape from the Plage Mala, a tiny pebble cove under the cliffs, past old villas and gardens and along the rocks. Early in the morning or late in the day, with the sea glittering and the scent of pine and salt, it is one of the loveliest short walks on the Riviera. Park the bike, change your boots if you can, and give it an hour.
The riding around here is about choosing the right Corniche. The Basse Corniche along the coast is slow and congested, with lights, scooters, buses and Monaco commuters. The Moyenne Corniche higher up offers grander views, tunnels and smoother curves past Èze. The Grande Corniche, highest of all, follows the line of the Roman Via Julia Augusta and passes La Turbie, where the Trophy of Augustus, a huge Roman monument from the first century BC, still stands above Monaco. These rides head inland toward the Col de Turini and the Route Napoléon, so you will climb through La Turbie or Sospel and quickly leave the coast behind for gorges and hairpins.
Traffic is the main hazard. Weekday mornings and evenings fill the roads with workers driving into Monaco, summer adds tourist traffic and the Grand Prix weekend in May brings chaos. Be careful with the many speed cameras, and with sudden queues in the tunnels. The best time to ride the corniches is early on a weekday or in the evening light, outside July and August.
There are cafes, bakeries and restaurants in Cap-d'Ail, and the beach bars by the water are pleasant in summer. For fuel, Monaco and the larger towns along the coast are close. Whatever you plan, look up and back once as you climb out of town: the view of the cape and Monaco from the corniches above is one of the most striking pictures on the whole coast.
- Antibes
photo
Old ramparts rise straight from the sea at Antibes, and behind them a tight knot of lanes, markets and ochre houses climbs toward a castle on the shore. The town sits between Nice and Cannes on the bay of the same name, facing the snowy line of the Alps on clear winter days, with the long wooded peninsula of Cap d'Antibes to the south and the jazz town of Juan-les-Pins on its western flank.
The Greeks founded a trading post here called Antipolis, and for centuries Antibes was a frontier fortress facing Nice, which belonged to Savoy until 1860. The star-shaped Fort Carré, reworked by Vauban, still guards the entrance to Port Vauban, one of the largest yacht harbours in the Mediterranean, where superyachts line the outer quay. In 1946 Picasso was given rooms in the Château Grimaldi on the seafront to use as a studio, and the works he produced there in a burst of energy now form the heart of the Picasso Museum. The Marché Provençal in the old town is busy every morning with flowers, olives, cheese and socca, the chickpea pancake of the coast.
The ride around Cap d'Antibes is short and lovely, a narrow road past villas, pines and rocky coves, though the traffic in summer can be dreadful. For serious riding you head inland. The Mercantour and Col de Turini rides go northeast, up the Var valley or through Nice and into the mountains, where the hairpins of the Turini are famous from the Monte Carlo Rally. The Verdon ride goes northwest via Grasse, the perfume town, and the Route Napoléon to Castellane and the Gorges du Verdon, where the road follows the rim of a canyon several hundred metres deep before descending to the turquoise Lac de Sainte-Croix for a swim.
Riding out of Antibes takes patience. The coast is densely built up, the roads are congested for much of the year, and speed cameras are common. Leave early in the morning, especially in July and August, and you will reach the hills before the heat and the crowds.
Fuel, food and services are everywhere in and around Antibes, and the old town is a fine place for an evening meal when you return. Parking for bikes is easier than for cars, but keep valuables with you. A walk along the ramparts at sunset, with the Alps turning pink across the bay, is the right way to end a day.
- Near Saint-Laurent-du-Var
finish
Until 1860, the river at Saint-Laurent-du-Var marked an international frontier. On the west bank lay France; on the east bank lay the County of Nice, part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and travellers along the coast had to cross the wide, shifting bed of the Var to pass from one to the other. For centuries there was no proper bridge, and the village made its living from the men who carried travellers across on their backs or guided them through the shallows. When Nice became French, the border vanished, but the river is still the dividing line between the town and the city.
Today Saint-Laurent is a busy suburb on the west bank, facing Nice's airport across the river mouth. It has a marina, a long pebble beach, the large Cap 3000 shopping centre and a small old village up the hill with a church and narrow streets. It is not especially beautiful, but it is lively and practical, with plenty of cafés and restaurants along the seafront.
The Var itself is a wild Alpine river, prone to sudden floods, and its broad gravel bed is now partly a nature reserve, home to herons and other birds. Following it north, the road leads into the mountains, and the gorges of the Vésubie, the Tinée and the upper Var all branch off within an hour. This is the way you will have come down if you are finishing a ride from the Col de Turini or the Mercantour, perhaps tired and dusty after a day of hairpins.
Coming back to the coast at the end of the day, expect a sudden shift from empty mountain roads to the dense traffic of the Nice agglomeration, with roundabouts, scooters and impatient drivers. Take it slowly. There are fuel stations and food everywhere, and the beachfront is a fine place to end the day, with the sun setting behind the Esterel and planes landing over the bay. In summer, the evenings stay warm and the beaches are busy until late; in winter, the coast is mild and quiet, and the mountains behind are often white with snow.
- Food stop near Mandelieu-la-Napoule
food
Mandelieu-la-Napoule sits at the western end of the bay of Cannes, where the river Siagne meets the sea, and behind it rise two very different massifs. To the south-west, the Esterel is a jagged range of red volcanic rock, plunging into the sea along one of the most dramatic stretches of coast in France. To the north, the Tanneron is a softer range of hills famous for its mimosa, which blooms in brilliant yellow in late winter.
On the seafront stands the Château de la Napoule, a medieval fortress restored in the early twentieth century by the American artist Henry Clews and his wife Marie, who filled it with his strange, fantastical sculptures. Today it is a museum and art centre, with gardens overlooking the sea.
For riders, the Corniche de l'Esterel, running south-west along the coast towards Saint-Raphaël, is a classic, with tight bends, red cliffs and blue water below. The roads inland over the Esterel and the Tanneron are quieter, climbing through cork oak and pine forests with views over the coast. Surfaces are generally good, but traffic on the coast road can be heavy in summer. In dry weather, fire risk can close forest roads.
Fuel and food are plentiful in Mandelieu and Cannes. As a high point, the roads over the Tanneron or the Esterel offer views over the bay of Cannes and the Mediterranean, especially beautiful in the early morning or late evening.
- Near Puget-Théniers, on the way back
swim
The upper Var valley around Puget-Théniers is a strange and beautiful corridor: a wide bed of grey gravel with the river braiding through it, steep wooded slopes on either side, and above them the bare limestone of the Pre-Alps catching the light. The N202 runs through it from Nice towards Digne, and for riders coming back from the Verdon it is the long, satisfying homeward leg, quick and open with the river beside you.
Puget-Théniers itself is a small town of under two thousand people, built where the Roudoule stream comes down to meet the Var. Its most famous son is Auguste Blanqui, the nineteenth-century revolutionary who spent much of his life in prison, and in the square stands a powerful bronze by Aristide Maillol, a woman with her hands bound behind her back, made in his honour. The town is also a stop on the narrow-gauge railway that runs from Nice to Digne, and on summer Sundays an old steam train puffs up the valley from here, which is a fine sight if you happen to be on the road alongside.
The water is the reason for the stop. The Var is cold even in high summer, fed by snowmelt from the Mercantour, and its gravel banks make natural beaches where you can wade in to the knees and feel it bite. Swim only in calm pools away from the main channel, because the river rises quickly after storms in the mountains, and never close to the dams and weirs downstream. The tributaries, the Roudoule and the Cians, have smaller, clearer pools in the gorges, and locals know their favourites.
Around here the riding gets serious if you leave the main road. Just upstream the Gorges de Daluis and, a little east, the Gorges du Cians cut through deep red rock, with tunnels, overhangs and narrow ledges where the road clings to the cliff, and they are among the most dramatic roads in the southern Alps. Climb them early in the day before the camper vans come, and watch for fallen stones after rain.
Puget-Théniers has cafés, a bakery and the basic services of a small town, and you should find fuel on the main road here, but stations are scarce up the side valleys. Carros, on the edge of the Nice plain, is the next large town, about thirty kilometres downstream, and from there the coast and the traffic begin again.
- Back to Gorges
finish
North of Nice, the valley of the Paillon cuts up into the mountains, and Lucéram, Berre-les-Alpes and L'Escarène are small, stone-built villages along its length. The landscape is a little wilder than the coast, with olive terraces on the lower slopes giving way to pine forest and bare limestone higher up, and the air carries a scent of thyme and warm rock. The Paillon is a seasonal river, often almost dry in summer and surprisingly fierce after autumn storms.
The valley has a strong history. For centuries, the road through L'Escarène was part of the Route du Sel, the salt road that carried salt, olive oil and other goods between Nice and Piedmont, and mule trains used the old paved tracks that you can still find in the hills. L'Escarène has a large baroque church that shows how wealthy the trade made the village. Lucéram, perched on a hillside, is known for its collection of late medieval altarpieces, painted by artists of the Nice school, in its church, and its streets of narrow, vaulted lanes are good for a stroll. Local specialities include olive oil and a rustic bread.
For motorcyclists, this is a gateway to the Alpine Maritime backcountry. From Lucéram, the road climbs to the Col de Turini, a famous pass that features in the Monte Carlo Rally, and into the forests of the Mercantour. The corners are tight and technical, with hairpins and steep drops, and the surface is generally good. The valley road is also fun, with a rhythm of bends and tunnels. Fuel is scarce: Lucéram and Berre have little, so fill up in Contes, a town of nearly seven thousand people that has several stations, before you leave the coast.
Autumn is the best time, with clear air and quiet roads, though the first snow can fall high up in November. In winter, the Turini can be closed, so check before you go. The ride has taken you around the Verdon and over the mountains, and this valley feels like a calm last chapter, with the sea close at hand.