French Alps 2005

Saturday - Col crazy

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We all woke early and started packing the bikes whilst waiting for the dining room to open, three even earlier bikers were standing hopefully by the pump, no chance lads, it's not open yet!

According to my GPS track log, we set off at 08.18, that's got to be a record!

Just 13 miles into the ride, and quite close to the top, we came across this WW2 bunker complex and part of the Maginot Line that used to guard the pass. There are 2 main bunkers and a machine-gun cupola a little higher up.

360deg panoramic video from the bunker here 2.94Mb (no sound)

Someone had left a door open, well, we couldn't resist a peep inside. Patto grab your torch!

Just to the right of the entrance these steps lead down to a long corridor below, Patto's torch did nothing to illuminate the passage, plus it was pretty wet and muddy down there so we retreated back to the surface. No doubt the complex is fully connected underground, we just didn't have the lights to explore properly :(

Back on the surface we re-mounted and road up to the top of the Col.

The gang at the top of Cime de la Bonnette, 2860m - 9383ft the highest pass in Europe.

Part of the view from the top, impressively desolate...

It wasn't as grim as this picture would have you believe, but it does seem to sum up Col de la Bonnette quite well, nothing much grows up here, and the air is thin and cold.

Shortly after leaving the top (and riding a short section of road that was total devoid of tarmac!) we passed through Camp des Fourches a deserted military camp, we didn't stop but carried on looking for a Cafe.

Taken on the way down the South side of the Bonnette, these two images were never meant to be stitched together, but they do make an interesting picture. The odd shape is caused by the software (PTGui) correcting the lens distortions before stitching them together, click here for the full size version, 332kb.

A few miles down from the top we found the Le Chalet Cafe in Saint-Etienne-de-Tinee, a nice shady spot for coffee.

As we carried on down the road we were overtaken by a German couple on a huge BMW K1200LT, he really was going for it, his back wheel was seen to step out more than once on damp patches as he battled past us. I can't imagine what was going through the mind of the girl on the back, perhaps she had her eyes closed?

The sun beats down on the fabulous Col du Turini, my favourite pass of the whole trip, it was great going up and just brilliant coming down.

The picture above was taken from here, can you see the little chapel on the hill top? It overlooks the Gorge and would be a brilliant place to take a picture, maybe next time?

I wish I had more pictures to show you, but it's difficult to stop six bikers enjoying themselves riding down these superb roads, just to take pictures!

The Col de Turini as it drops down toward Menton.

For quite some time we had been looking out for fuel, but we didn't pass any - the closest on the GPS was 15 miles away. At Sospel I made a brief detour looking for fuel, but only found the Sospel Bunker, part of the Maginot Line - it was huge. Eventually, three bikes were running on just the fumes in the tank, so Dave S broke out his special reserve of fuel from the cavernous compartment under the Bergman's seat (2 galls, it's a good job he had it!) and four bikes were topped up.

14.40 After riding probably the best roads of the whole trip we finally dropped down in to Menton. All the bikes were re-fuelled, then we made a bee line for the nearest Cafe on the sea front and ordered celebratory ice creams all round.

The end of the Route Grand Alps after four days and 434 miles, if someone had said "Hey! take another four days!' I would have turned around and done it all again, no problem.

After four days riding over the Alps, we stayed in Menton just 45 mins before turning around and heading back toward Zeebrugge only 770 miles away. Zooming out on the GPS it did look quite a daunting ride, but we had nearly two and a half days to do it in and the first part would be on the much talked of 'Route Napoleon'

We decided to join the Route Napoleon at Grasse and see how far we could get. So Grasse was quickly found in the GPS and a route set via the A8 motorway West, just above Menton, then the D2085 (around 40 miles).

Trust me, the Route Napoleon is a terrific road as it wends its way through the mountains, and we got as far as Castellane by 5.30, it's quite a decent sized town and very close to the Gorge du Verdon, the very nice girl at the Tourist Information wasn't allowed to recommend anywhere, but she did say "try the Hotel du Levant on the town square". Thanks, what an excellent choice.

After putting the bikes away in the hotel garage and cleaning up, we had a wander around the town. Later, we returned to the Levant for the evening meal, here's Patto ordering from best waitress of the whole trip, she was a human dynamo and full of fun.

So, the end of a very successful day - the Route Grande Alps was completed, and we had started back on the Route Napoleon, which was proving to be a superb road.

The Fourth days route 193 miles covered.

From the GPS, The last section of the Route Grande Alps,

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