"Must do" Roads on French Alps Road trip

[200Plus Club]

Planning our first French Alps foray next year after a cracking Swiss Alps road trip this year. Would appreciate any "must-do" suggestions of the best passes and/ or drives to "must see" places.

A couple of caveats - wife on board and wants to visit Annecy for a full day, so plan is travel down and then do 3 days in /around that area and do Col du Pre and Col du Frene plus sightseeing.

Then move base perhaps further south for another 3 days based near Grenoble or Gap perhaps and do as many drives as possible within that region.

We don't envisage going further south towards Nice or Monaco, so possibly Col de La Bonette would be as far as we'd venture.

I'm unsure as to best months to go or to avoid (snow closures?), but we are able to go anytime of year thankfully.
Any hotels or areas to stay also welcome !

[mr pg]

From Annecy head towards Albertville and take the road through Beaufort past Lac de Roselend to Bourg St Maurice, then head through Val d'Isere along Col de L'Iseran. From there head to Lac du Mont-Cenis and south from there.
An alternative from Albertville would be to head south to Col de Madeleine and then Col de Telegraphe/Col de Galibier to Briancon.
Hotel Anova in Montgenevre is pretty good, popular with car clubs/tours.

[200Plus Club]

mr pg said:

From Annecy head towards Albertville and take the road through Beaufort past Lac de Roselend to Bourg St Maurice, then head through Val d'Isere along Col de L'Iseran. From there head to Lac du Mont-Cenis and south from there.
An alternative from Albertville would be to head south to Col de Madeleine and then Col de Telegraphe/Col de Galibier to Briancon.
Hotel Anova in Montgenevre is pretty good, popular with car clubs/tours.

Thank you, will look at that and the hotel too. Been watching a few you tube vids of the French Alps now and there are some spectacular drives by the look of it. I was surprised tbh how many there are tbh

[Michael_B]

Most of the highest mountain passes generally open mid June. Personally I’ve found there is a huge difference in traffic from going end-June/early July compared to mid July onwards. Go as early as you can, both in terms of date and hour of the day.

I’ve ridden (solo or with Mrs B as pillion) these roads to the Mediterranean coast and back to Geneva (including three week long trips to Corsica, plus trips onto Italy/Spain) numerous times over the past 25 years.

The suggestions above are spot on: e.g. the Cormet de Roselend is a corker; I’ve had lunch there by the lake twice this summer during day trips.

I tend to camp so can’t really recommend hotels, but if you want recommendations for routes further south around Gap and into Provence, there is a current thread on the biker forum by a group who are there right now.

Bonne route!

[200Plus Club]

Michael_B said:

Most of the highest mountain passes generally open mid June. Personally I ve found there is a huge difference in traffic from going end-June/early July compared to mid July onwards. Go as early as you can, both in terms of date and hour of the day.

I ve ridden (solo or with Mrs B as pillion) these roads to the Mediterranean coast and back to Geneva (including three week long trips to Corsica, plus trips onto Italy/Spain) numerous times over the past 25 years.

The suggestions above are spot on: e.g. the Cormet de Roselend is a corker; I ve had lunch there by the lake twice this summer during day trips.

I tend to camp so can t really recommend hotels, but if you want recommendations for routes further south around Gap and into Provence, there is a current thread on the biker forum by a group who are there right now.

Bonne route!

Cheers!
That thread is one of a few that's inspired to start planning a French alps trip!

[Stick Legs]

Col du Glandon / Col de la Croix de Fer are beautiful.

Head from Grenoble up to Allemond.



Then proceed up the Glandon





Then over to the Croix de Fer:



After that it’s a couple of hours via Albertville to Annecy.

These pics were taken last week when I went cycling.

[CraigyMc]

200Plus Club said:

mr pg said:

From Annecy head towards Albertville and take the road through Beaufort past Lac de Roselend to Bourg St Maurice, then head through Val d'Isere along Col de L'Iseran. From there head to Lac du Mont-Cenis and south from there.
An alternative from Albertville would be to head south to Col de Madeleine and then Col de Telegraphe/Col de Galibier to Briancon.
Hotel Anova in Montgenevre is pretty good, popular with car clubs/tours.

Thank you, will look at that and the hotel too. Been watching a few you tube vids of the French Alps now and there are some spectacular drives by the look of it. I was surprised tbh how many there are tbh

The Haute-Savioe and Savioe parts of France are pretty underrated, especially when you can pop over to Italy for lunch on the D1006 past Mont Cenis. Excellent suggestions.

[200Plus Club]

Ive been adding various routes from these suggestions / threads etc and you tube onto Google maps , had no idea there were so many excellent routes within this region.