Thonon-les-Bains → Menton

Day 1. Le Reposoir → La Clusaz — 2 stops · 105 km · ≈ 2h

01 Mountain

Col de la Colombière

Le Reposoir (74950)  · 80 km · 1h28

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Between Le Grand-Bornand and the Reposoir valley, the road over the Col de la Colombière climbs towards imposing rock bands. Follow in the tracks of the Tour de France, which has crossed this pass twenty-three times, up to the chalets at the summit. On the Reposoir side, the climb reveals the charterhouse below and the outline of the Pointe Percée.

02 Mountain

Col des Aravis

La Clusaz (74220)  · 25 km · 32 min

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At 1,486 metres, the lowest of the Aravis passes links La Clusaz to Flumet, on the Route des Grandes Alpes. The Tour de France came over it as early as 1911, in what is held to be its first Alpine stage. Pause at the top and look east, where the Mont Blanc massif fills the horizon.

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Day 2. Hauteluce → Beaufort — 3 stops · 74 km · ≈ 1h41

03 Mountain

Col des Saisies

Hauteluce (73620)  · 27 km · 38 min

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At 1,632 metres, you cross a vast alpine pasture already mentioned in the 13th century, between the Beaufortain and the Val d'Arly. On 1 August 1944, the Resistance received a major parachute drop of weapons here. The cross-country skiing and biathlon events of the 1992 Olympic Games were held on this plateau, where a cheese dairy also makes Beaufort.

04 Mountain

Cormet de Roselend

Beaufort (73270)  · 38 km · 51 min

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At the Cormet de Roselend, you cross the pass linking Beaufort to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. On the west side, the road skirts the Lac de Roselend, whose waters cover the former mountain-pasture hamlet of the same name. The summit opens out above the tree line, and the Tour de France first came over it in 1979.

05 Lake

Lac de Roselend

Beaufort (73270)  · 9 km · 12 min

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In 1960, the filling of the dam drowned the alpine village of Roselend, and a new chapel now stands nearby. A concrete arch one hundred and fifty metres high holds back the lake, between the Cormet de Roselend and the Col du Pré. Follow its shore along the road, facing the peaks of the Beaufortain.

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Day 3. Bonneval-sur-Arc — 2 stops · 89 km · ≈ 1h55

06 Mountain

Col de l'Iseran

Bonneval-sur-Arc (73480)  · 75 km · 1h40

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Perched at 2,764 metres between the Maurienne and the Tarentaise, the Iseran is the highest road pass in the Alps. Here you find the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Prudence, designed in 1939 by Maurice Novarina, in the Vanoise, protected as a national park. Opened in 1937, the road closes every winter, when the pass joins the ski runs of Val-d'Isère.

07 Village

Bonneval-sur-Arc

Bonneval-sur-Arc (73480)  · 14 km · 15 min

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At the very end of the Haute-Maurienne, below the Col de l'Iseran, Bonneval-sur-Arc huddles its squat stone houses under stone-slab roofs borne by larch. Stroll through its lanes and look on the wooden galleries for the grebons, cakes of dried sheep dung that once heated the hearths. Not a single cable or aerial spoils the façades.

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Day 4. Valloire → Le Monêtier-les-Bains — 3 stops · 106 km · ≈ 2h10

08 Mountain

Col du Télégraphe

Valloire (73450)  · 74 km · 1h29

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The pass owes its name to the Fort du Télégraphe, set on a neighbouring rocky spur, and peaks at 1,566 metres. In 1911, the Tour de France's first Alpine stage was already crossing it before the Galibier, which it still precedes from the north. Climb its 11.9 kilometres of wooded hairpins from Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to gauge the effort demanded of the riders.

09 Mountain

Col du Galibier

Le Monêtier-les-Bains (05220)  · 23 km · 32 min

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At 2,642 metres you cross one of the highest road passes in the French Alps, between the Maurienne and the Guisane. Above, the Grand Galibier raises its limestone and quartzite ridges over slopes of short grass. Completed in 1891 and closed in winter, the road has been climbed by the Tour de France since 1911.

10 Mountain

Col du Lautaret

Le Monêtier-les-Bains (05220)  · 9 km · 9 min

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At 2,057 metres, the Col du Lautaret links the Oisans to the Briançonnais, on a threshold smoothed by an ancient glacier. A Roman road already crossed it; the botanist Dominique Villars noted its flora in 1779, and an alpine garden blooms here today. Look south-west to see the Meije rise, and north to the Galibier.

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Day 5. Briançon → Mont-Dauphin — 3 stops · 87 km · ≈ 1h55

11 Village

Briançon

Briançon (05100)  · 28 km · 35 min

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You climb to the upper town of Briançon, built on a rock bar left by the glaciers, within Vauban's walls. Its ramparts, its forts and the Pont d'Asfeld, World Heritage listed, guard the road to the Col de Montgenèvre. In the Grande Gargouille, a channel of running water rushes down the middle of the sloping street.

12 Mountain

Col d'Izoard

Arvieux (05350)  · 20 km · 29 min

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Built by General Berge between 1893 and 1897, the road crosses the pass at 2,362 metres, between Briançon and Château-Ville-Vieille. On the southern side, drive through the Casse Déserte, where needles of cargneule rise from bare scree. On the way out, a stele honours Bobet and Coppi, as the Tour de France often takes this pass.

13 Village

Mont-Dauphin

Mont-Dauphin (05600)  · 39 km · 51 min

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Discover Mont-Dauphin on a rocky plateau that watches over the meeting of the Durance and the Guil, at the crossroads of the routes to the Queyras and Briançon. The fort, designed by Vauban, is a World Heritage Site among the engineer's strongholds. All around, erosion has carved the conglomerate into pinnacles, including the one nicknamed the Titan's Hand.

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Day 6. Vars → Jausiers — 3 stops · 88 km · ≈ 2h

14 Mountain

Col de Vars

Vars (05560)  · 27 km · 40 min

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At 2,108 metres, the Col de Vars links the Ubaye with the Guillestre country, on the Route des Grandes Alpes. Drive up through hairpin bends that climb above the tree line. The Tour de France crossed it as early as 1922, and in 1938 Gino Bartali built here the stage win that gave him the yellow jersey.

15 Village

Barcelonnette

Barcelonnette (04400)  · 30 km · 37 min

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At 1,135 metres, in the heart of the Ubaye, the small sub-prefecture bears the mark of an unexpected adventure. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, locals who had left to seek their fortune in Mexico came back to build large villas surrounded by gardens. Discover them along the avenues, beneath the peaks that close off the valley.

16 Mountain

Col de la Bonette

Jausiers (04850)  · 31 km · 43 min

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Take time, on the final hairpins, to watch the pastures give way to scree and old blockhouses. Between the Ubaye and the Tinée, this road completed in 1964 loops round the summit and climbs to 2,802 metres, the Tour de France altitude record. On both sides, ruins of the Alpine Maginot Line recall past tensions with Italy.

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Day 7. La Bollène-Vésubie → Menton — 2 stops · 156 km · ≈ 3h29

17 Mountain

Col de Turini

La Bollène-Vésubie (06450)  · 110 km · 2h23

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At 1,604 metres, this pass links the Vésubie and Bévéra valleys, at the top of hairpin bends made famous by the Monte Carlo Rally. The final ramps climb through a conifer forest, crossed five times by the Tour de France. Stop for a while at the hamlet on the pass, where several roads meet.

18 Church

Basilique Saint-Michel-Archange de Menton

Menton (06500)  · 45 km · 1h03

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In Menton, flights of steps climb from the seafront to the pebble-paved forecourt of this Baroque church consecrated in 1675. Take in its columned façade flanked by two bell towers, including the Campanin, fifty-three metres high. Every August since 1949, this forecourt has served as the stage for a music festival.

Arrival in Menton · 1 km · 3 min

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