Alps by motorcycle 2023 II - part 1, Route des Grandes Alpes

Next part: Alps by motorcycle 2023 II – part 2, towards Mediterranean

Alps by motorcycle 2023 II – part 1, Route des Grandes Alpes

After my Alps tour of June 2023 I wrote that “when you go there once, you always want to return”. This time I just couldn’t wait another five years. Actually, I was back in Alps just one month later, in July 2023.

After two failed attempts at Col de l’Iseran, it become a kind of obsession to me. I wanted to finally pass it completely, and both ways.

And since on previous tour I just skimmed France, this time I decided to build my entire route around French Alps. Conveniently, there is a famous route through French Alps – Route des Grandes Alpes.

As I only had one week, it wasn’t really feasible to get there on my bike. So I took this opportunity to test-ride BMW R 1250 GS. I’ve seen a ton of these bikes on each day in Alps, and I grew seriously curious.

I rented GS from Geneva and got there by an airplane. No direct flights for me, but still much easier than two days on highways (and two more for the ride back).

So, what where my impressions of GS? Well, that deserves it’s own post, so check back soon.

Part 1, Route des Grandes Alpes

First day was meant to be a warm-up. New motorcycle, so not too many kilometers. From Geneva I went towards Thonon-les-Bains, the official start of the route. That was just normal road, without corners and full of cars. Good to adjust to a bike.

In the town I just took couple of pictures and turned south-east, towards first passes: Col des Gets and Col de la Colombière.

The scenery changed quickly, from lake view and summer heat, to gorges and much more pleasant temperatures.

These first two passes aren’t terribly spectacular, so the star of a day was Blue Lake group, which played in Grand Bornand.