MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN France

Riding the Route Napoléon by motorcycle means following, kilometer by kilometer, the exact path Napoleon Bonaparte marched between March 1 and 7, 1815, when he landed at Golfe-Juan after escaping his exile on the island of Elba and advanced 325 km toward Grenoble to reclaim the French throne.

For most riders searching "best motorcycle road in Europe", it's the first route that comes up: pavement smooth as a billiard table, fast sweeping curves and technical mountain hairpins combine without a single dull stretch across its 325 km.

At Sisteron, the road runs beneath a citadel carved into the rock that has dominated the Durance river valley since the 14th century — one of the points where Napoleon actually stopped during his march.

Today the N85 still follows that historic route almost unchanged, and it remains the road where most international motorcycle travelers kick off their first road trip through the French Alps.

Crossing the Col de la Bonette by motorcycle means reaching, on the panoramic loop around the Cime de la Bonette, 2,802 meters above sea level — Europe's highest paved road and the highest dead-end paved point on the continent.

The pass stays closed by snow most of the year: it typically opens in mid-June and closes again by late September, a short window every European rider marks on the calendar.

The road is part of the historic Route des Grandes Alpes, the chain of 17 alpine passes running from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, and the final detour around the Cime adds a full loop around the summit just to be able to say you touched Europe's paved roof.

At that altitude the engine loses power from lack of oxygen, and the weather can turn in minutes, even in the middle of summer.

Riding the rim of the Gorges du Verdon by motorcycle along the Corniche Sublime means hugging the edge of a canyon more than 700 meters deep, carved by the Verdon river through limestone over millions of years — one of the deepest gorges in Europe and the reason it's known as the continent's Grand Canyon.

The full loop combines the D952 on the north bank with the D71 (Corniche Sublime) on the south, crossing more than a dozen single-lane tunnels cut directly into the rock, some without artificial lighting.

There's no guardrail along much of the route, and the road narrows to one lane in several stretches with blind curves and unlit tunnels: it demands full attention, especially when meeting cars or tourist caravans during high season.

Climbing the Col d'Izoard by motorcycle to its 2,360 meters means entering the Casse Déserte, a lunar landscape of eroded rock spires and grey scree that looks pulled straight out of a western — raw enough that films have used it as a natural set with no dressing needed.

The pass is part of the Route des Grandes Alpes and one of the most cited climbs in Tour de France history, crossed more than 35 times since 1922, with monuments to Fausto Coppi and Louis Bobet standing right in the Casse Déserte.

The southern stretch, between Cervières and the pass, still sees active rockfall: it's not unusual to find loose stone on the pavement after a storm, something every rider climbing from Briançon should keep in mind.

Crossing the Col du Tourmalet by motorcycle means climbing the most historic pass in world cycling: since its debut in the 1910 Tour de France, the race has crossed it more than 87 times, more than any other pass in the event's history.

At 2,115 meters it's also the highest paved pass in the French Pyrenees, with a final stretch from La Mongie — the ski station at 1,800 m — of tight, exposed switchbacks up to the cyclist monument at the summit.

In 1910, Tour organizer Henri Desgrange was talked into sending the race into the high mountains for the first time by his assistant Alphonse Steinès, and the Tourmalet became the centerpiece of that shift.

In the region it's common to find loose cattle grazing right next to the road, a typical Pyrenean scene that forces you to slow down through blind curves.

Cresting the Col du Galibier by motorcycle at 2,642 meters means reaching one of the highest paved passes in the French Alps and the most frequently used climb in Tour de France history within that range, with more than 57 appearances since its 1911 debut.

The French army built a 365-meter tunnel at 2,556 m — one meter for every day of the year — that for 90 years let the race skip the final kilometer at an 11% grade before the summit.

It's part of the Route des Grandes Alpes alongside the Col de l'Iseran and the Col d'Izoard, and its link with the Col du Lautaret makes it one of the most sought-after mountain connections for riders crossing from Briançon into Savoie.

Climbing to the Col de Bavella by motorcycle means entering the heart of wild Corsica, with the Aiguilles de Bavella — seven granite needles rising past 1,600 meters that shift from ochre to gold as the sun moves — dominating the view from the 1,218 m pass.

The road connects Solenzara, on the east coast, with Zonza, in the mountainous interior, and local riders consistently point to it as the best combination of sea and mountain you can pack into a single day of riding.

Corsica has a reputation among European motorcycle travelers as an island built for two wheels — beaches, gorges, peaks and mountain passes packed into a small landmass — and within that island, the Col de Bavella is the stretch that comes up most often.

In the forests around the pass it's common to run into pigs, cows or goats loose on the road, a typical feature of Corsica's free-range grazing.

Riding the Route des Crêtes of the Vosges by motorcycle means spending almost the entire ride above 1,200 meters, following the ridgeline that separates Alsace from Lorraine up to the Grand Ballon, the range's highest point at 1,424 m.

The road wasn't built as a tourist attraction: the French army built it in 1915, in the middle of World War I, as a supply route to move troops and equipment along the front line that ran through these same mountains.

Today, the road that once carried ammunition links the Col du Bonhomme with Thann via the Col de la Schlucht, the Hohneck and the Markstein, with fast ridge curves and open views over the Rhine valley on one side and the forests of Lorraine on the other.

Riding through the Gorges du Tarn by motorcycle means following the Tarn river for 50 km between limestone walls that in places rise past 400 meters, separating the Causse Méjean from the Causse de Sauveterre in the heart of the Massif Central.

The river took millions of years to carve out this limestone corridor, and the road that now runs alongside it passes through short tunnels cut straight into the canyon rock, switching between sun and shade every few minutes.

Unlike the high alpine passes, this is a valley-floor canyon: the ride can be combined in the same day with a climb up to the Causses, the limestone plateaus above, to see the full cut of the gorge from the lookouts.

Crossing the Col d'Aubisque by motorcycle to its 1,709 meters means riding, between the Col du Soulor and the Aubisque itself, through the Cirque du Litor: a ledge cut directly into a cliff face in the early 1900s, with no guardrail and a straight drop on one side.

This pass is part of the so-called "Circle of Death", the chain of climbs that on the July 21, 1910 stage of the Tour de France — Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque in a single day — marked the birth of high-mountain racing.

Among riders who know the Pyrenees, the Aubisque-Soulor combination is often named the best single day of riding in the whole range, for its mix of technical curves, rock walls and open valley views.