Route des Grandes Alpes Road Trip Over the High Passes

The first time I drove the Route des Grandes Alpes I believed the brochure that called it a four day drive. We left Thonon-les-Bains on a Tuesday, crossed three passes before lunch on Wednesday, and by Thursday evening my sister and I were eating supermarket sandwiches in a car park at Barcelonnette because every kitchen in town had closed at nine. We had seen sixteen cols and almost nothing else.

The route runs about 700 kilometres from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean at Menton, over sixteen named passes, six of them above 2,000 metres. On paper that is two long motorway days. In practice you will average 35 to 40 kilometres an hour on the climbs, which turns a 110 kilometre stage into a four hour drive before you stop for anything at all. Give it six days and it becomes one of the best slow drives in France. Give it four and it becomes a test of your clutch.

When the high passes are actually open

This is the part that decides your trip, and it is not a detail you can sort out on the road. The Col de l'Iseran at 2,764 metres and the Col du Galibier at 2,642 metres are closed by snow for roughly seven months. They usually reopen somewhere between the last days of May and the middle of June, and they close again in the second half of October. One cold week in May can push that by ten days, and nobody can promise you a date in March.

So the honest window for the full route is late June to early October. July and August are reliable and busy. I would choose the second week of September every time: the cols are all open, the passes are quiet on weekdays, the light is long and low, and the mountain inns still have their summer kitchens running. Early October is beautiful and a gamble, because a single storm can shut the Iseran for the season.

Each department publishes the status of its cols, and the signboards at the foot of every climb show open or closed in large letters. Read them. A closed Galibier means a detour through the Maurienne valley that costs you half a day.

A six day plan that leaves room to stop

These are the stages that have worked best for the readers who write to me afterwards. Each day is between 90 and 140 kilometres, which sounds absurd until you drive it.

Thonon-les-Bains to Beaufort, about 140 kilometres over the Col de la Colombiere and the Col des Aravis. A gentle first day through green pasture. Reach Beaufort by late afternoon and visit the cheese cooperative before it shuts; a wedge of Beaufort d'ete runs around 28 euros a kilo and travels well in a cool bag.
Beaufort to Val d'Isere, roughly 95 kilometres over the Cormet de Roselend at 1,968 metres, past the turquoise reservoir, then up the Tarentaise. Fill the tank in Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
Val d'Isere to Valloire, the big one. The Iseran first thing in the morning, down to Bonneval-sur-Arc for coffee among the stone roofed houses, then the Col du Telegraphe at 1,566 metres. About 120 kilometres and a full day.
Valloire to Briancon, only 55 kilometres over the Galibier and the Lautaret, which leaves a whole afternoon for the walled upper town of Briancon, the highest city in France at 1,326 metres.
Briancon to Barcelonnette, about 100 kilometres over the Col d'Izoard at 2,360 metres and the Col de Vars. Stop in the Casse Deserte on the south side of the Izoard, where the rock crumbles into pale spires.
Barcelonnette to Menton, the longest day at roughly 200 kilometres, over the Cayolle, down the Var valley and finally the Col de Turini. Break it in Saint-Martin-Vesubie if you can spare a seventh night.

If you only have three or four days, drive the northern half from Thonon to Briancon and stop there. The stretch between Beaufort and the Galibier is the heart of the route, and seeing it properly beats ticking off all sixteen cols from behind the wheel.

Skip the highest road in Europe

Almost every itinerary tells you to detour onto the Cime de la Bonette, the loop above the Col de la Bonette that signs advertise as the highest road in Europe. I would leave it out, and I say that as someone who drove up it twice to be sure.

The claim is a piece of 1960s road building pride. The loop was built around the summit specifically so the altitude figure would beat the rivals, and it is a dead end spur you drive up and back down. It costs about 45 minutes, the view is a bare grey scree bowl, and on the day we went the wind at the top made it impossible to stand still for a photograph.

The Col de la Cayolle, on the parallel road a valley to the west, is the better choice for the same morning. It is narrower and far quieter, the climb follows the young Var through larch forest, and the top at 2,326 metres looks over green slopes instead of rubble. If you want altitude for its own sake you already have the Iseran. One bare summit per trip is plenty.

The practical things that catch people out

Fuel is the first. Above 1,500 metres the stations thin out and the few that exist close early and sometimes for lunch. Fill up in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Briancon and Barcelonnette as a matter of routine, even at half a tank, for the reasons set out in our notes on finding fuel on rural French back roads.

Second, lunch. Mountain kitchens serve from noon to about half past one and then they stop. On the Galibier stage there is almost nothing between Valloire and the Lautaret, so buy bread, saucisson and cheese the evening before.

Third, the driving itself. Uphill traffic normally has priority on single lane mountain roads, hairpins are tighter than they look in a hire car with a full boot, and cyclists own these climbs in summer. Pass them wide and slowly. Our list of French driving rules visitors get wrong covers priority and the rules that apply on these roads.

Fourth, your brakes. Coming off the Galibier or the Izoard, stay in second or third gear and let the engine hold the car. I once followed a camper van down the Vars that filled the whole road with the smell of hot brake pads, and the driver had to stop twice to let them cool.

Last, booking. Villages like Valloire and Bonneval have perhaps three or four small hotels each, and in August they fill weeks ahead. Expect 75 to 110 euros for a double room with breakfast in a family run place, and ring them rather than booking through a platform.

Where to sleep and eat along the way

Beaufort, Bonneval-sur-Arc, Briancon and Barcelonnette are the four nights I would protect. Beaufort is a working dairy village and smells like it. Bonneval is all stone and lauze roofs with no modern building allowed inside the old centre. Barcelonnette is the strange one, a mountain town full of broad villas built by families who emigrated to Mexico in the nineteenth century and came home rich; walk the Avenue de la Liberation and you will see them.

Eat the local things rather than the tourist menu. Diots sausages cooked in white wine in Savoie, crozets with Beaufort, tourtons stuffed with potato around Briancon, and in the Vesubie the first hints of the Italian kitchen. If you want the same rhythm at a lower altitude afterwards, our slow travel guide to Lake Annecy makes a good soft landing before you drive home.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the Route des Grandes Alpes take?

Six days is comfortable with time to walk and eat properly. Four days is the common recommendation and it means roughly six hours of driving daily. Two days is possible and tells you almost nothing about the mountains you crossed.

When do the passes on the route open?

The high cols, including the Iseran, the Galibier and the Bonette, generally open between late May and mid June and close in the second half of October. Lower passes such as the Aravis stay open all year except during snowfall.

Can you drive the route in a campervan?

Yes, and plenty of people do, though anything over about seven metres will struggle on the hairpins of the Izoard and the Cayolle. Overnight parking is restricted in many pass car parks, so plan on campsites in the valleys.

Which direction is better, north to south or south to north?

North to south, starting at Lake Geneva. The climbs ease you in, the scenery builds, and finishing with the sea at Menton gives the trip an ending. Driving north means your hardest passes come on day one.