N85 Route Napoleon

[Kirky1298]

looking for opinions please, is the route best done North to South or South To North ?

[halfpint]

head south and twist the grip mind out for the speed cameras . they have got very sneaky ..

[daveuprite]

Either direction is good. But do the detour off N85/D6085/D4085 to go around the Gorge De Verdun. It's spectacular and well worth it. Grasse is a nice play to stay at the southern end, and a bit cheaper than a room on the coast. There are lots of what we used to call 'playground' roads (when we rode down for the Bol D'Or each year). The '202s' are all good (D6202, D4202 and N202), and there's a nice road further east that goes up into the hills and drops down into Italy (D2204, D6204) with lots of tasty twisties.

Bonne route!

[sprintster]

It's a great road in either direction.If I was only to do it once I would probably head south,just since heading for the Med would make it more memorable. I stayed near Castellane for six days and run up and down it several times.It certainly lived up to the hype!

[Kirky1298]

Cheers lads,
I'm off on my travels on Wednesday . Overnight in Ieper then shoot for Grenoble for an overnight. Up early and do the Alpe D'Huez before hitting the N85 down to Castellane for a few days. Going rafting and canyoning before heading over to Millau and Gorge du Tarn ( any advice on Tarn roads ? ) before heading up to Ordour Sur Glane then over to the submarine pens at St Nazairre. Finish off with a jaunt over the Normandy landing beaches finishing up in Albert for steak and Ruby Leffe before the long slog home to Scotland. Canny wait !!!!

[Kirky1298]

Either direction is good. But do the detour off N85/D6085/D4085 to go around the Gorge De Verdun. It's spectacular and well worth it. Grasse is a nice play to stay at the southern end, and a bit cheaper than a room on the coast. There are lots of what we used to call 'playground' roads (when we rode down for the Bol D'Or each year). The '202s' are all good (D6202, D4202 and N202), and there's a nice road further east that goes up into the hills and drops down into Italy (D2204, D6204) with lots of tasty twisties.

Bonne route!

Is that route des cretes ??? If so, it's already planned

[daveuprite]

Not sure, perhaps that's the name. The road into Italy that I'm thinking of runs north from Nice up to Sospel and then into Italy at a place called Fanghetto. We used to ride it like loons, make sure we had a plate of pasta in Italy (just to say that we had), and then blast back to the coast.

[Kirky1298]

Dave,
I think the road round gorges du verdon is called the route des cretes, sorry, I should have been clearer.

[Spike941]

Dave,
I think the road round gorges du verdon is called the route des cretes, sorry, I should have been clearer.

I think you’ll find the Route des Cretes is in the Vosges in North East France.

[Kirky1298]

Dave,
I think the road round gorges du verdon is called the route des cretes, sorry, I should have been clearer.

I think you’ll find the Route des Cretes is in the Vosges in North East France.

You're correct spike, however, I think you'll find there's more than one route des cretes. Done the Vosges route des cretes quite a few times bro. P.S. It's actually South East France.