French Alps Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour

Seven nights in the French Alps, self-guided, based at Chamonix for four of them with riders on their own bikes.

Troyes comes first on the way out, then Chamonix by way of Dijon and the Jura, which puts the bike under Mont Blanc by the end of the second day, with Montreux and the Jura again on the ride home.

Four free days follow, all of them optional rides. The first crosses into Italy over the Col des Saisies, the Cormet de Roselend and the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard, returning through the Mont Blanc Tunnel, with a cheese museum at Beaufort on the way. The second runs to Annecy over the Col de la Colombiere and the Col des Aravis. The third crosses into Switzerland for the Col du Pillon, the Glacier 3000 cable car and suspension bridge, Gstaad and the Col des Mosses. The fourth is for the Aiguille du Midi cable car, which climbs to very nearly four thousand metres.

Seven nights of bed and breakfast and the return Eurotunnel crossing are included, along with the GPX routes, the kit list and the itinerary; all other meals, fuel, parking, admissions and the vignette are not, which makes this the one tour in the range where dinner is not provided. Eight days from a single base means no packing, and the cols on these free days are genuine Tour de France climbs rather than approximations of them. They are generally open from June to October, and the Mont Blanc Tunnel charges a toll each way. Chamonix is also an expensive town to eat in, which is worth budgeting for given the meal arrangements.