Route Napoleon, Comb Laval, Gorge du Verdon Tour

Ten nights through the French Alps and into Italy, guided, two thousand miles on the rider’s own motorcycle.

Four roads make the case for this one: the Comb Laval, a balcony cut into a cliff face in 1897; the Route Napoleon; the Verdon Gorge rim; and the Col de l’Iseran at 2,764 metres, the highest paved pass in the Alps.

The Lorraine park and the Vosges open it over the Ballon d’Alsace, then the Jura, the Bauges and the Chartreuse to two nights near Grenoble, with a Vercors ride-out taking in the Comb Laval and the Col de la Machine. The Route Napoleon follows, the road the emperor took north from the coast in 1815 and which took its present form in the 1930s, to two nights at Castellane by way of the Col des Leques and the Col Bayard. The Verdon ride-out comes next, the deepest canyon in Europe with seven-hundred-metre limestone walls. The Bonette at 2,715 metres follows through the Mercantour, past the abandoned Camp des Fourches, then the Vars and the Izoard into Italy, the Mont Cenis, and the Iseran.

The Eurotunnel crossing, nine nights’ accommodation, daily breakfast, three evening meals, hotel leisure facilities, route maps and GPS files, all the parking and a guide throughout are all included; fuel, tolls, entry fees, other meals and the mandatory insurance and breakdown cover are not. Late June to September is the window, since the Iseran opens last of all and can close again at short notice. Eleven days with two ride-out days built in is a well-paced trip, and the Verdon day is the one worth clearing the schedule for.