There were a a large number of cyclists staying at the Hotel Bel Air and all were tucking into hearty breakfasts at the early slot. I hope we left enough for the rest of the guests who probably didn't appear until much later that morning!
Jausiers is at the bottom of the epic climb of the Cime de la Bonette, which claims the title of the highest road in France, if not the country's highest col. A sign at the bottom says it's the highest paved road in Europe but according to Wikipedia,
Pico de Veleta in Spain is higher. To get to the summit involves 23 kilometres of climbing which took almost 3 hours (how do you replicate that in the UK?). It proved to be a very enjoyable climb. The first half was at a comfortable 6 to 7% and then after a slight dip the second half ramps up to 8 to 9%. The views were stunning and the scenery on a grand scale as the lovely smooth road twists through a coarse, prehistoric, boulder strewn landscape with patches of snow still lying around. When you reach the Col de Bonette at 2,715 metres there is a wickedly steep loop purposely constructed to claim the highest road in France. At the back of the loop we took a footpath and climbed to the top of the mountain and the stunning viewpoint.
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| Climbing the Cime de la Bonette |
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| Striking views back to the Ecrins |
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| The Summit Pillar |
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| Panoramic view from the summit |
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| Looking down on the road loop which circles the summit |
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| Views out to the South |
As usual care was needed on the descent to avoid any straying motorbikes crossing the middle of the road. We passed some dramatic waterfalls and stopped in the small town square of Saint Etienne de Tinee for an early lunch.
Waterfall on the descent
As its name suggests the town lies beside the river Tinee and is surrounded by high mountain slopes forested in pine and larch trees. We found a cafe in the central square after the first restaurant didn't seem interested in our custom. The square is actually a pair of adjoining squares, surrounded by brightly painted buildings, including the 18th-century Saint Etienne church (yellow) and the town hall (ocre red).
We then followed the sweeping Tinee valley downhill for 18 miles, losing a huge amount of height to Saint Sauveur sur Tinee following a separate cycle path away from the road for quite a bit of the route. The heat of the day increased, leaving us with one major climb left to conquer of our tour, the Col de la Couillole. This is not that high, especially compared to what we had been over, at only 1678 metres, but it still involved 1168 metres of climb due to the height that we had dropped from the top of the Cime de la Bonette. The col was the finish of stage 7 of this year's Paris to Nice race (the race to the sun) and was won by Australian Riche Porte.
Although not quite as bad as yesterday's Col de Vars it wasn't far off and I struggled on the 16 Kms of climbing at an average of 7.3%. Phil texted me to say there was a cafe at the village of Roubion, but somehow I missed the first turning into this hill top village and took the second and failed to find it. I did at least find a water fountain and was able to replenish my bidons. Re-visiting the climb in Strava's virtual flyby mode it can be seen that Phil stormed up the second half of the climb and was actually 2 minutes faster than the polka dot shirt of Chris even though he was still someway behind him going over the summit. A sweeping short descent took us to our Hotel in Beuil.
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| Col de La Couillola- no one around to take a photo of me (resisted a selfie!) |
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