A few months ago we were looking at the numbers that made part of the graphics on the side of Andy’s Transalp and began to wonder what they were all about. A quick Google later and we realised they were the gps co-ordinates of the highest paved pass in the French Alps, and in fact the highest paved through-road in Europe; the Col de la Bonnet.
At 2802m, this road is over twice the height of Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the UK). A few beers later and we had decided that the Col de la Bonnet should be the focal point of our next trip!
Roll on a few months and we had a loose plan with the only definitive arrangements being the booking for the Channel Tunnel. With that in mind we reckoned if we gave ourselves two days to travel from Calais to Alps and two days to travel back up, we’d have six days to play in the French Mountains.
So on the day of departure we left our homes in Wales and Cornwall and met up halfway on our journey to Folkestone where we spent our last night of luxury with some chilled bud’s and a burger before getting our heads down at the Premier Inn. We’d be camping from now on!
After we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5am we made the “Chunnel” in plenty of time. Being a first for both of us we were glad there were another couple of bikers to chat to and show us the way onto the train. After the usual safety announcements the carriage started to move and we were on our way.
Within 40 minutes we were in France and with our watches adjusted an hour ahead, we were ready to roll. Waving goodbye to the other bikers who were off to Germany and the Nurburgring, we hit the toll road and headed south. Though they are quite boring, they aren’t too expensive and you make good distance on these quiet, stress free roads.
After reaching Troyes in good time we left the toll roads and headed towards Dijon on roads a little twistier. On arrival to the city we searched for campsites on our Garmins and found one within a few km’s. After registering in our mixed French/sign language we set up camp next to another British couple and headed into town to see the sights and grab some scran. It was soon becoming apparent that I was not fluent in the local language and instead decided to work on my confused but smiling look, with some shoulder shrugging thrown in for good measure.
We awoke the next morning to the tip tap sound of rain against the tent... this couldn’t be right, we were on holiday! Anyway, we packed up and enjoyed some ‘pain ou chocolads’ (this became a core breakfast for us, and is sadly missed) before we headed off, our aim to reach the Alps by aiming for Annecy. After an hour or so the rain tailed off and we enjoyed some fun and easy to ride roads as we watched the flat landscape becoming hilly. Around 2pm and after a blast down a bumpy back road we stopped at a little pub/restaurant for a bite to eat. Well the sign said pub/restaurant but in reality it was a house with a side bar in the front room. A tasty jambon sandwich was followed by a visit to the bathroom which was the guy’s bathroom, where his laundry was hanging up to dry and a life size picture of Charlie Chaplan was propped against the toilet!
Later that afternoon it rained again... hard. Hoping it would only be temporary we soldiered on until it started bouncing off the road and reducing visibility to only a few metres. At that point we gave up and adorned our one piece rain suits before battling on. We eventually reached Annecy and climbed out the town to a campsite looking over the ‘Lac d’Annecy’, pitched the tent and then the rain stopped and we had a great evening cooking sausages and ravioli.
Once again the sound of rain against the tent woke us up. Heading from the relative comfort of our tent we headed out into the elements and travelled some scenic roads towards Chambery, continuing through the ‘Massif de la Chartreuse’. Due to the weather, we found ourselves riding in the clouds. Though it wasn’t raining at this point it was damp and visibility wasn’t much better than you would expect with fog. After climbing for a while we checked our elevation on the Garmins and were surprised to find we were at almost 1500m... Higher than Ben Nevis and we’re on our bloody bikes woop woop!
With our morals lifted we rode past what seemed like a small deserted resort and decided we’d have a nosey to see if there was anywhere open for a brew. A small cafe looked like it was open so we popped our heads round the door to be greeted by the smell of home cooking. The place was open especially to feed the road builders that were working nearby and had literally just taken the food out the oven. Luckily they had enough for two extra travellers so we sat down and feasted upon the ‘plat de jour’ consisting of a massive slab of kish lorrain as a starter, a mound of lasagne for main, then a fruit pudding... ideal!
We decided to head for the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, made famous by the Tour de France, with the idea of riding up its hairpins the next day. Not long after leaving Grenoble the rain decided to join us, and most of France for that matter (major floods in the South East of France were reported in the news that night). As we road along we could see all the ditches by the road were becoming waterlogged and after a while we made the executive decision to find a cheap hotel to give us a chance to dry our kit. We found somewhere cheap that offered secure bike storage, which was actually the owners own garage where we discovered a well ridden but very well looked after KTM Supermoto 990 and a Kawasaki ZX9 restoration project.
Unfortunately, the heater and the telly in the room wouldn’t work purely as there was no wall socket (cheap hotel) so we started talking about escaping to the South coast for a couple of days hoping the weather would change for our return. Drawing the curtains in the morning we were sorry to see more of the same weather. Kitting back into our rain suits and collecting our bikes from the garage we typed Marseille into the Garmin... Fastest route? It asks... We clicked Yes!
About an hour on the toll road out of Gap we spotted some blue skies along with quite a sudden transformation in landscape. With the ground drying beneath our wheels the lush green of the lower Alps turned to Palm trees and reddish soils. Now stripped of our rain suits the rest of our gear was drying out nicely.
With the vast improvement in the weather we pulled off the toll road North of Aix-en-Provence at a town called Pertuis. From there we rode some amazing dry, smooth, twisty tarmac to a campsite only a few km’s from the coast. A word of warning on these roads... watch out for truck drivers with road-rage coming over crests of hills whilst driving next to the van they are angry with! If you ever find yourself in this situation there is a narrow section of tarmac, just to the side of the painted line, which a bike can just fit into whilst under heavy braking.
Just before reaching the campsite we were treated to an amazing stretch of empty road with smooth 2nd and 3rd gear bends that you could see snaking away through the trees. We were in two minds to ride it again, but decided against it on the grounds that it’d had been such a perfect end to the day, we didn’t want to ruin it. After some tasty pate baguettes and double duff of chocolate pudding by the tent we hit the hay with big smiles on our faces... We were in hot dry weather and the roads were fannytastic!
BOOM BOOM
Phil: “Was that thunder?”
Andy: “No, couldn’t be, probably a truck!”
FLASH FLASH FLASH
Andy: “What are you doing?”
Phil: “Counting the seconds befo...”
BOOM BOOM BOOM
And so the thunder storm lasted several hours!
It was surprisingly dry when we woke in the morning. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the 12v socket on my bike was full of water (forgot to put the cover back on) you’d never have known it had happened.
We took the coastal road towards Toulon with aims to reach Saint Tropez for the end of the day, the Sun was already beating down hard and all the vents were open on our riding jackets. We stopped early for our ‘pain ou chocolads’ and sat on the wall by a sandy beach and enjoyed the view of the blue sea and the coastline. After a couple of minutes we realised we were overlooking what could be best described as a topless beach, we didn’t know where to look! A good half an hour after we finished our morning scran, we carried on our journey.
This area of France is very busy with tourism and nutters on scooters, but even though the riding along the coast was slow with traffic, we had warmth and some great views. As it turns out, the topless beach from earlier was probably just a normal beach as it seems to be the done thing down here. Coming from Scotland where it’s a bit to nippy for that kind of thing, it was a bit of a culture shock!
On reaching Saint Tropez we were a bit disappointed to find that it wasn’t quite what we expected. In fact outside the posh bit, it was a commercial-tourismy-shit-hole. So due to that we high tailed it a few km’s to find a more pleasing area to camp.
On the news we discovered the flooding in Nice, just up the coast, had been tragic and claimed 8 lives. Roads leading to that area were closed off by the Gendarmerie and we wanted to head back to the Alps anyway. We headed North from Cannes towards Grasse then onto Castellane. The roads were once again fantastic and the weather was staying dry, though you could feel it was definitely getting cooler.
Stopping for a brew we realised that we could get back on track to our main reason for this trip, to ride the Col de la Bonnet. Being able to see the mountains and the good weather spurred us onto our goal where we stayed at a nice campsite just outside the wee village of Beauvezur. We arrived there just in time to witness a remembrance service for the men from the village that had been killed during the 1914-1918 War. Having a look at the memorial there were names for about 15 men, four sets of brothers. It makes you think!
The following morning our Alps adventure started with a bang, a good bang! After about 20 minutes of leaving the campsite we were climbing up a twisty singletrack road. Hairpin after tight hairpin we rose quickly and as the trees started to thin out at 1700m we started to see slabs of snow clinging to the hillside. We kept on climbing and were soon over the 2000m mark, it really was a great feeling. As we neared the top the road surface deteriorated and there were several drainage ditches to cross, and then it changed. Hitting the pass’s summit and riding round the bend the surface became like a snooker table, winding down the mountain ahead of us. Whilst taking photos, a couple riding a tandem puffed their way past. I told them they were over 2000m and nearly at the top, to which the reply was “it sure (breath) fookin (breath) feals (breath) like it!” As we carried on down back to the valley below we passes several groups of cyclist making their way up this pass. I was so glad to have an engine!
Once down in the valley we travelled along a fast road with smooth bends and we were making good progress. Passing us in the other direction was some kind of classic car rally, with many old Porsches and the like, all with big stickers on their doors.
Then the climbing started. This was it, the whole reason for this trip; we were heading up the Col de la Bonnet! It wasn’t long before we left the valley far behind us and we were out of the trees as the road wound its way up the mountainside, hairpin after hairpin as the road doubled back on itself as it clung to the steep slopes. Stopping regularly just to take in the views and fire off a few photo’s we were passed by other bikers and in turn we passed them when they had stopped to do the same.
The cold was certainly showing its presence with large areas of snow refusing to melt and no vegetation to shelter us from the wind. Then we were there, well almost there! On the top of the pass, there is a loop that takes you to the full 2802m, but this was still blocked by snow so we were 80 vertical metres short, parking our machines with the other bikes that had made it the 2722m from the sea.
After making excited chat with the other equally as excited bikers, and taking in the atmosphere of reaching our goal, we started up our bikes and headed down the other side. Being steeper than the ride up we certainly gave our brakes a good test! Once down the Col, we made our way to Guillestre via the ‘Col de Vars’ to camp and enjoy a very tasty ‘Plat de Jour’ of soup, salad, tagnatelli carbonara (with a raw egg placed on top) and a chocolate mousse. The rest of the evening was spent reflecting on what we’d done.
Waking the next day to more dry weather we headed again for Alpe d’Huez with the aim of reaching the top this time. Again some great roads (as they all are round here) we climbed over the ‘Col d’Izoard’ to find we were being snowed on, and this being the 21st of June was the longest day of the year! Taking it easy on the hairpins we actually had a load of fun.
Not long after a break for a brew we arrived at the base of Alpe d’Huez and promptly made our way up the infamous hairpins. With so many names of cycling heroes marked out on the tarmac you couldn’t help but wonder how much effort these cyclist must put in to reach the top. At the top there is even a banner going across the road along with a shop that sells pretty much all the different teams cycle tops including an “I rode to the top of Alpe d’Huez” t-shirt. Not sure if a motorbike counts though! Taking a different route down we headed North to the town of La Chambre where we treated ourselves to a stay in a hotel and a tasty pizza.
With only two more days left in France before our train back to the UK, we popped on the toll road to Chambery, peeling off it an hour or so later to ride up the side of ‘Lac du Bourget’ and some surprisingly fun roads through a large forest and towards the town of Borge-en-Bresse. From there it was back on the toll roads to smash it past Dijon and onto the town Langres. On the outskirts we found a pleasant campsite with an indoor pool and a Jacuzzi. Pulling on the speedos and jumping straight in was a good way to end a long journey on the toll roads.
With it being our last full day in France we took a scenic stretch North along some quick roads and made some impressive time towards Calais through the Argonne area. From there we were back on the tolls for the rest of the way to Calais where we rode along the coast for a few km’s and found a charming campsite by the ‘Cap Gris Nez’
And that was it, our last night in France before our ‘Chunnel’ journey the following morning, and our ride home. Cannie wait to do something similar again!
FIN
