Route des Grandes Alpes · part 3

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Waypoint 3

   The Route des Grandes Alpes is a French invention of the early twentieth century, a line drawn from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean to link the high passes, and at this point on it you are in the quiet southern part, Haute-Provence, where the Alps run out of height and begin to smell of thyme.

   Read the complete Waypoint 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Waypoint 3 is where the day begins. Next is Waypoint 4.

2. 2. Nice

   Nice rises from a wide bay of pebbles and blue water, with a ridge of hills behind it, and it has been a seaside resort since the English began wintering here in the eighteenth century. The Promenade des Anglais, the seafront boulevard they paid for, still runs for several kilometres along the shore, lined with palms, pale hotels and deckchairs, and the old town, Vieux Nice, behind the Cours Saleya flower market, is a tangle of ochre and pink houses with laundry hanging out of windows. Castle Hill, a wooded bluff at the eastern end of the bay, gives a view over the whole sweep of the coast. Italian influence is strong, as the city only became French in 1860, and the food shows it. Try socca, a chickpea pancake, a pan bagnat sandwich or a proper salade niçoise.

   Read the complete Nice write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Waypoint 4 comes up 163 km in. Next is back through Waypoint 3.

3. 3. back through Waypoint 3

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Waypoint 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   326 km in you reach back through Waypoint 3. Next is back through Waypoint 2.

4. 4. back through Waypoint 2

   This spot lies in the Maurienne, the long valley of the river Arc that runs from the high Alps down toward Chambéry, and the town of Modane sits at the heart of it. For centuries this was the way across the mountains to Italy, via the Mont Cenis pass, and in the nineteenth century engineers drove a railway tunnel under the Fréjus massif, which opened in 1871 and gave the town its role as a border station. A road tunnel followed in 1980. Today Modane is quiet and a bit industrial, but its position makes it a natural stopping place.

   Read the complete Near Modane write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Waypoint 2, late in the day. Next is Waypoint 1.

5. 5. Near Thonon-les-Bains

   The Route des Grandes Alpes officially begins on the shore of Lake Geneva at Thonon-les-Bains and ends some seven hundred kilometres later on the Mediterranean at Menton. Standing here at the start, with the lake spread out flat and silver in front of you and the Swiss shore hazy on the far side, it is hard to believe that within an hour you will be climbing into proper mountains. That contrast is the whole romance of the thing.

   Read the complete Near Thonon-les-Bains write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Waypoint 1. That is the ride.