Route des Grandes Alpes: Geneva to the Med

French Alps, Haute-Savoie to Alpes-Maritimes · France

Moderate7 daysEurope~£1,100 est.

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Overview

France's Route des Grandes Alpes drops from Thonon-les-Bains on Lake Geneva to the palms of Menton in about 700 km — over sixteen alpine passes, including the highest paved through-pass in the Alps. It is a week of continuous hairpins, col-top coffees and valleys that change character with every descent. The roll-call does the selling: the turquoise reservoir under the Cormet de Roselend; the 2,764 m Col de l'Iseran, bleak and magnificent above Val d'Isère; the Galibier's Tour de France graffiti; the eerie rock pinnacles of the Casse Déserte below the Col d'Izoard. Detour onto the Bonette loop road above 2,800 m for the highest tarmac in France, then wind down through the Turini forest to the sudden blue shock of the Mediterranean. The moment is topping the Iseran early, cloud sea filling the Maurienne behind you. The variables: the high cols open from about mid-June to mid-October, and early summer can still hold snow walls; July brings Tour crowds and thousands of cyclists — give them the racing line; and Briançon and Val d'Isère beds want booking ahead. Seven days, around £1,100 per person in cols-side hotels and long lunches.