Vercors

One big romance

The fact that the Vercors is gaining in popularity is not surprising. This mountain massif south-west of Grenoble is breathtakingly beautiful. Anyone who visits this mountain range will be captivated by the purity of the varied landscape with its jagged rock formations, green valleys, waterfalls, fast-flowing rivers, deep gorges and fragrant lavender fields. Exploring this mountain range on your motorbike is literally overwhelming. Do you like pure, rugged and romantic? Then this is your holiday!

Hotel 'La Buffe' is your home during this trip. A beautiful hotel in a former ski village of Autrans. Here you can unwind after a day's riding and fully enjoy the holiday feeling. You can park your motorbike against the hotel, so you can always keep an eye on it. You can also take beautiful walks around the hotel and take a ride on the toboggan run. Definitely a must!

The outward journey (first day) and return journey (last day) you will drive on your own initiative.

You ride in the south-east of the Vercors today and you can choose between long and short versions of the route. You start immediately with a nice winding road followed by a long tunnel. If you ride the long varaint of the route you will be treated to the first cols pretty soon: is Col Gaudissart (889m) immediately followed by Col de la Machine (1,015m). This col got this name because it was prepared by a machine rather than by nature. Several more viewpoints follow on this col. You now drive towards the town of Gap, this old town is definitely worth a visit, as it is famous for its gapençais. You then continue the route through the Gorges des Gates. This is a national park, where you drive between the mountain crevasses, the roads remain and the views remain stunning. You will again be treated to some cols: Col de Grimone (1,318m) Col de la Croix-haute (1,179m) Col du Banchet (900m) and Col de Accarias (892m) After these cols you come to the village of La Mure, this is a nice place for a stop. After La Mure, you continue through the beautiful countryside and you will see the reservoir Lac de Monteynard-Avigonet on the right with its extraordinary green/blue water. The route continues towards Grenoble, which is a larger and busier road. The last part you meander under Grenoble back to the hotel. Again, this is a fun road to drive.

Today you can again choose between a long and a short version of the route. Today, you ride towards the north of the Vercors, the tarmac may not be as good in the beginning, but this is made up for by the beautiful nature and the views. You pass some authentic French villages and then you come to the gorges and mountains again. The next col on the route is the Col du Granier with an altitude of (1,134m). This col is named after the mountain it crosses: Mont Granier. This mountain is (1,933m) high and has a steep wall of no less than 900m. The route continues through various national parks and forests. The last kilometres take you back to the hotel through the Canyon des Ecouges. 

For today, you have a choice of three different length routes. For all three, leaving on time in the morning is preferred! The short route east towards l'Alp d'Huez(1,860m). The famous mountain, sometimes called the "Dutch mountain" in cycling circles. Also known as a sponsor mountain in the fight against cancer and other diseases. The road here is often heavily painted. This can be slippery! You do have beautiful views here! The long route takes you via some beautiful high passes to Col du Galibier (2,645m). The first two beautiful cols you drive up are Col du Grandon (1,924m) and Col de Croix-de-Fer (2,067m). Both with stunning views over these mighty mountains. You then ride a section of through route parallel to Col du Telegraphe (1,566m) on the D902 which leads to the highest Col in this route namely Col du Galibier (2,645m). The XL route is largely the same as the long route with the difference that it makes an extra loop over the Col de Sarenne (1,999m) up followed by l'Alp d'Huez (1,860m) down. 

Day route 4 starts with a beautiful route towards "La Mure". You will be drive 7 cols (short route) or 10 cols (long route).  After about the first 10 kilometres you cross the Pont du Goule Noir and immediately afterwards the Pont du Valchevrière. These two bridges give you a beautiful view over the Gorges de la Bourne and the accompanying balcony roads that go through the rock every now and then. You are now driving towards Grenoble and then back towards the mountains. You then drive into Park National Vercors, this park has a total of 186,000 hectares and you can fully enjoy the flora and fauna. The climate here has great extremes: in the summer it is sunny, dry and warm, in the winter the temperature can easily drop to -20 °C. After a short distance on a larger road, you will reach the Col de Menee (1,402m). The route continues over Col de Marignac (743m) and Col de la Croix (745m) with a lesser quality road surface, but the views are still worthwhile. You pass some villages and the waterfall "La Bourne" The last part of the route follows the D531. This road goes through the Gorges de la Bourne and is very impressive for 24 km. You drive into a tunnel and via the last col back to the hotel.

For those who want to stay a little longer, there are 3 extra day routes available. They all cover a slightly different area. Our goal was to find as many different and of course beautiful roads as possible. This extra route offers you especially a few nice extra passes and an extra day of nice steering through the Vercors with a relatively short distance and driving time.