Motorcycling · Southern French Alps
Motorcycle touring in the Mercantour — the Valdeblore stopover
On the Route des Grandes Alpes, between the Tinée and the Vésubie: a proper dinner, a proper bed, and hosts who know you leave early.
The Route des Grandes Alpes winds its way from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, stringing together major mountain passes; its final section doesn't just skirt the hamlet—it runs right through it. Between the Tinée and Vésubie valleys, the road to the Col Saint-Martin (1,503 m) climbs onto the Valdeblore plateau, passing village after village—La Bolline, La Roche, Saint-Dalmas. If you’ve ever ridden this stage, you’ve passed right by our doorstep without even realizing it.
Here’s the difference when you ride here: you don’t have to descend. The gîte sits at an altitude of 1,300 m directly on the route—no forty-minute detour to the valley floor just to find a bed. You stop where your day ends, and in the morning, you pick up exactly where you left off—hitting the first climb before your engine has even fully warmed up.
We take care of the rest. Half-board for everyone: a communal dinner featuring home-style cooking and regional products—the kind of meal that hits the spot after eight hours of riding in the wind. Choose from twin, double, or triple rooms—all with private bathrooms—or a bunk in the dormitory if you’re traveling light. There’s a common room with a wood-burning stove, perfect for that evening moment when you retrace the day’s hairpin turns with a finger on the map, your helmet resting at the end of the table.
Key facts
- On the Route des Grandes Alpes: the Col Saint-Martin (1,503 m)
- Col de Turini (1,604 m), up the Vésubie valley
- Cime de la Bonette (2,802 m) and Col de la Lombarde (2,351 m), up the Tinée
- Guesthouse at 1,300 m, an hour from Nice — 24 beds, half board
- Pass openings and road conditions: Inforoutes 06, the evening before
On the handlebars
The passes from the doorstep
Southbound, the Route des Grandes Alpes finishes well. You drop into Saint-Martin-Vésubie, then climb the Col de Turini (1,604 m) — the pass the Monte-Carlo Rally made famous, with its hairpins, its night stage and its spectators on the banks. After that the air changes: the long descent to Sospel, the vegetation turning Mediterranean, and the sea at the end of the bars.
Northbound, everything starts in the Tinée valley. Follow it up to Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée and you reach the Cime de la Bonette (2,802 m), which the Route des Grandes Alpes calls the highest paved road in France, and which tips over into the Ubaye on the far side: officially a variant of the route, in practice the day you are still talking about the following winter. Still in the Tinée, above the Isola 2000 ski resort, the Col de la Lombarde (2,351 m) crosses the border and drops you into Italy, in the Stura di Demonte valley — an out-and-back in a day, or a loop through Piedmont if you have the time.
Closer in, and barely a detour: the Col de la Couillole and Valberg, on the northern section of the route, are reached up the Tinée as well.
One rule covers all of them: none of these roads can be promised in advance. Opening, snow clearing, roadworks, restrictions — check the evening before on Inforoutes 06 or with the tourist office. We are happy to talk it through over dinner, with a map between the plates.
Your stopover
The house for riders
What the establishment offers: half-board (breakfast and dinner) and a picnic basket—please request the latter when booking if you already know that nothing will be open up there. With twenty-four beds ranging from a superior room to a dormitory, there is generally enough space to accommodate an entire group under one roof.
For anything else—such as parking right outside your window or accommodating a group with multiple motorcycles—please call us at 04 93 02 89 04 before booking.
Frequently asked questions
Before you set off
Where can we stay on the Route des Grandes Alpes by motorcycle?
Gîte les Marmottes is in the hamlet of Saint-Dalmas, Valdeblore, at 1,300 m — on the Col Saint-Martin road, between the Tinée and the Vésubie, which is a section of the Route des Grandes Alpes. Half board, 24 beds, an hour from Nice, at the gateway to the Mercantour.
Where do we park the motorcycles?
Call us before you book, on +33 4 93 02 89 04: tell us how many of you there are and roughly when you expect to arrive, and we will tell you what we can do about parking. Two bikes and eight are not the same arrangement.
Are the passes open?
It depends on the year, not on the calendar: the high passes — the Bonette, the Lombarde — close under snow and reopen when the ploughs get through, so we publish no dates here. Check Inforoutes 06, the Alpes-Maritimes department's road service, the evening before. And note that the house itself closes in November and December.