Discovery Tour: Route des Grandes Alpes
After our discovery tours last year both led us to the east (Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Croatia plus Slovenia), we wanted to try out a new route, more to the west this year: The Route des Grandes Alpes.
Four days of delightful driving in the french alps, covering more than 20 breathtaking passes and 870 km of pure driving pleasure.
Day one: Evian les Bains to Tignes
We spent the first night at Evian les Bains where we also met with Nico of Planete Piston.
Evian turned out to be tricky for the Cup Elises and the Exiges, because of their low front splitters that needed to be saved from parking entrance and exit ramps. Our Cup Elises and Exiges therefore went to park at the Casino, following a recommendation by our hotel. The bad news arrived in the morning: Instead of the prospected €17 for the night, the parking cost €46 per car and on top all the cars parked there were covered in bird poop. Not the most pleasant way to start our tour.
After the cars that suffered from the bird attacks had been cleaned and everyone had filled up, we were on our way to Thonon to join the D902 leading south. The first leg of the day turned out to be a wonderful, sweeping road with not too much traffic. We went all the way to Cluses, where we had another appointment to meet with Cyrille, who came in his beautiful titanium color Elise S160. Meeting him meant to take a detour from the route via the D119 from Cluses to Le Reposoir which turned out to be the Col de Romme. Absolutely worth the drive, highly recommended.
Lac de Roselend
On the D4 to Saint-Jean-de-Sixt we had a nice lunch with local specialities to then continue our tour along the D909 to Flumet, where we then took the D218B towards Beaufort. Following Cyrilles recommendation we took a little detour from the original Route des Grandes Alpes to the Lac de Roselend, which was a fantastic idea! On a day with nice weather you cannot miss this! Drive to the barrier and enjoy the view and the atmosphere!
Towards the end of the day we found ourselves in Tignes for our overnight stop, where we found challenging ramps again.
Everybody made it, only one license plate mounting frame lost its life.
We spent the evening at a local steak restaurant, that was about to close. When we told them we were a group of nine, they kindly stayed open and fed us with fantastic food.
Day two: Tignes to Eygliers
The second day started with a nice descent from Tignes back to the D902 towards Val d’Isere. The first pass was not far, but before some serious roadworks needed to be cleared. This was quickly forgotten after we had driven the Col de l’Iseran. After some driving on the D902 towards our next highlight of passes, we decided to take a little detour again to have lunch at the L’Etange in Aussois. Great choice, very nice local cuisine.
From Aussois we continued to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne where we continued to follow the D902. This time the D902 had the Col du Télégraphe on the menu, followed by one of the absolute highlights of the tour, the Col du Galibier. The Télégraphe was a nice ouverture, but the Galibier was just awesome.
From the Galibier the road to Briancon was – well – a connecting stage but only a few kms after we left Briancon towards Cervieres, the Col d’Izoard was waiting for us. More blissful curves past the Musèe du Tour de France.
After enjoying three of the signature passes of the trip at once, we kinda rolled down the road to our overnight stop at Eygliers. We enjoyed dinner with the overwhelming impressions of this day still on our minds, ready to head into the next day of curvy adventures.
Day three: Eygliers to Barcelonnette
Warming up the cars driving back from Eygliers to Guillestre to re-join the D902 once again. This time the route went from Guillestre via Vars to St-Paul-sur-Ubaye. And what a wonderful, fast, sweeping, harmonious street we found. Not one of the “super-col’s” but still definitely a great memory.
We then took a detour from the original RdGA track: Firstly because a friend recommended the Col della Maddalena into Italy, secondly because we would have missed one of the “must do col’s”, the Col de la Bonette. Sometimes you just have to bend the itinerary, if you want to see them all.
After the descent from the Strada della Maddalena, we needed to take a right in the valley, near the village of Vinadio. The SP255 towards the French border and Isola 2000 presented very impressive views of the landscapes, which eventually developed into a moon like surface as we climbed past the limit of vegetation. However, the street was very narrow with tarmac ranging from perfect to terrible. Oncoming traffic was not entertaining, because quite regularly the drivers of camper vans and SUV’s didn’t appear to be regular visitors of mountain roads. Passing was difficult and the other driver’s maneuvers somewhat unpredictable.
Col de la Bonnette
We quickly passed by Isola 2000 and stopped for lunch at Isola. Our first attempt at Le Collet Factory was a failure: We were told quite harshly to bugger off, regardless that the signs on the door said the kitchen was going to be open for another hour. So we found a rather informal but nice and light lunch at Maison Yalex. Freshly fed it was time to move on to the Col de la Bonnette.
With the pass at 2715m, therefore slightly lower that the Passo dello Stelvio, in their aspiration to present the “highest mountain street in Europe” (which is not quite accurate, since this can be found in the Sierra Nevada in Spain), the French government decided to make a slope around the “Cime da la Bonnette” taking the road to the height of 2802m, by this finally beating all the other “rivals”.
You may feel motivated, but resist the temptation to fly a drone to film your visit of the Cime de la Bonnette: Park Rangers are lurking for offenders, always ready to write you a fine.
The day ended in the crowded and bustling city of Barcelonnette with dinner and drinks.
Day four: Barcelonnette to Menton
The last day of our tour saw us heading towards the Col de la Cayolle. Nice but narrow. From Guillaumes we followed the D28 towards Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinèe and, instead of continuing east towards Saint-Martin-Vésubie, I followed the advice of a friend “you cannot miss La Tour”. Short summary: Yes, indeed you can. This was probably the worst piece of road on all of the tour and it had nothing special to compensate either. It was brutally hot, no landscape worth to mention, terrible surfaces. Three words: Don’t do it!
We treated ourselves to a lunch at the Col de Turini, unfortunately the last pass of the Route des Grandes Alpes.
Later on Saturday we arrived at Menton, where we finally could jump in the sea after a sweaty day of driving.
The city of Menton had lots to offer: The beaches, the Mediterranean sea, wonderful food and a great opportunity to look back and consider all the fantastic moments we had experienced over the last few days.
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