The Route des Grandes Alpes: Lake Geneva to the Riviera

Editor's note

One night on Lake Geneva. Yvoire keeps the 14th-century walls of Amadeus V of Savoy, and at its heart the Jardin des Cinq Sens is a labyrinth of hedges and espaliered apple trees. Round the bay, Excenevex has the only natural sandy beach on the French shore of the lake, with swimming in summer. In Évian, fill a bottle at the Source Cachat, which runs all year at 11.6°C, opposite the Art Nouveau Buvette Cachat, and see an exhibition in the Palais Lumière, the baths of 1902. The Château de Ripaille at Thonon, a home of the Dukes of Savoy, is open from April to October.

Editor's note

One night in the Aravis, reblochon country. The cheese takes its name from re-blocher, to pinch the udder again: tenant farmers paid their landlords by the day's milking, so they milked incompletely while the inspector watched and again once he had gone. Buy one from a farm producer. Le Grand-Bornand, with its covered market hall, the grenette, is in the heart of it. Above the village the road climbs past the 17th-century Vieux Village at Le Chinaillon to the Col de la Colombière, about 1,613 metres and closed in winter. Past La Clusaz, the Col des Aravis, 1,486 metres, has been crossed by the Tour de France 42 times.

Editor's note

One night in the Beaufortain. Beaufort has been an AOP cheese since 1968, and the cooperative in Beaufort, with about 180 farmers, ripens some 300,000 wheels a year. Visit its cellars and taste it, then eat it in a fondue or tartiflette. Up the valley, the Roselend dam holds an emerald lake at 1,553m, and the road carries on over the Cormet de Roselend at 1,968m, by van or by bike. Above Arêches, walk up through the hamlet of Boudin, a protected site since 1943, where some chalets are more than 300 years old, to its baroque chapel with a starry vault.

Editor's note

Two nights at Val-d'Isère, which hosted the men's alpine events of the 1992 Albertville Olympics. Above it, the Col de l'Iseran, at 2,764m, is the highest road pass in the Alps; ride, walk or drive up for the view over the Tarentaise and the Maurienne. The road is closed in winter. Down the valley, stand on the Tignes dam. Old Tignes lies under the lake: its 400 villagers fought the dam with lawsuits and sabotage until 1952, when the church and houses were dynamited and the village flooded. Look for what is left of Jean-Marie Pierret's Hercules fresco on the 180-metre wall, now almost faded away.

Editor's note

Two nights at Valloire, at 1,405 metres the most southerly commune in Savoie. From Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne the road climbs to the Col du Télégraphe, 1,566 metres, named after a Chappe arm-signalling telegraph tower built on the cliff edge in 1807, with the Fort du Télégraphe above. From Valloire it climbs again to the Col du Galibier at 2,642m, open only in summer, where a monument to Henri Desgrange stands by the summit tunnel. Beyond it, the Col du Lautaret has an alpine garden founded in 1899 with about 2,000 species, and at La Grave a cable car rises to 3,200m on the Meije glaciers.

Editor's note

Three nights at Briançon, at 1,326m the highest city in France. Walk down the Grande Gargouille, the steep main street with an open water channel down its middle, from the Porte de Pignerol. Cross the Pont d'Asfeld, a single 40m arch over the Durance gorge, and climb for 25 minutes to the Fort des Salettes. In the Clarée valley, find the 15th-century frescoes of the vices and virtues at Plampinet, and in summer hike 8.5km there and back from the Fontcouverte chalets to Lac Laramon and Lac du Serpent. The Col d'Izoard, 2,362m, has the dolomite pinnacles of the Casse Déserte on its southern side.

Editor's note

Two nights in the Ubaye, a white-water valley: raft from Méolans-Revel with a local outfitter. In the 19th century nearly 3,000 people left for America, most for Mexico, and those who came home rich built some fifty villas round Barcelonnette. The Villa La Sapinière, the only one open to visitors, holds the Musée de la Vallée. Up the valley, the Fort de Tournoux climbs almost 700m of mountainside. The Col de la Bonette, 2,712m, is closed in winter; a loop road round the Cime reaches 2,802m, and a path climbs to the summit at 2,860m. The Col de la Cayolle is open six or seven months of the year.

Editor's note

Two nights in the Mercantour. At Saint-Martin-Vésubie, known as the Switzerland of Nice, the Alpha park keeps wolves in large mountain enclosures, and a path circles the Lac du Boréon above. The Vallée des Merveilles holds more than 40,000 Bronze Age rock engravings below Mont Bégo, reached only on foot and only on a guided excursion; the Musée des Merveilles in Tende explains them. Photograph the Milky Way from Castérino; the skies are darkest from October to March. The Col de Turini, 1,604m, is a Monte-Carlo Rally regular: drive the 24km climb from Sospel and on through the forest to Peïra-Cava.

Editor's note

One night near Nice. The Promenade des Anglais runs 7km round the Baie des Anges and, with the villas and hotels of the old winter resort, has been UNESCO-listed since 2021. Climb the Colline du Château for the waterfall and the view over the bay, and go to the flower and vegetable market on the Cours Saleya in Vieux-Nice, on a morning from Tuesday to Sunday. Then drive the Grande Corniche towards La Turbie and climb through Èze, on its rock at 429m, to the exotic garden in the castle ruins. The Chemin de Nietzsche drops steeply from the village to the sea at Èze-sur-Mer.