Saint-Martin-Vésubie to Sospel

June 25, 2025

Another day that started with a cooling descent and followed spectacular mountain roads! As we descended to Sospel, I was thinking to myself that this has been a wonderful trip.

When I created the routes for this tour, I downloaded and edited GPX tracks from the Route des Grandes Alpes à Vélo website. Those of you who use RWGPS know that if you don’t add enough control points, RWGPS sometimes adds its own edits to yours and I suspect this happened with today’s route when I edited it to start and end at our booked accommodation.

In any case, we turned off M2565, the main road down the Vésubie valley, shortly past Roquebillière and found ourselves on a very small road that led us across the Pont du Véséou (I found the name of the bridge on Gaia but not the name of the creek/river) and up to La Bollène-Vésubie.

The small road was really quite pleasant.

Just across Pont du Véséou was this ruin. We wondered what it once was.

At La Bollène, however, our route wanted us to go up a road marked as a dead end. This is okay when you’re in a big town or city because it usually means bikes can go through while cars can’t, but here? While wd thought (briefly) about this, a cyclist came up the bigger road we were now on, greeted us in passing, and carried on. The maps on our Garmins showed that this road would join our route at Col de Turini so we chose to follow that cyclist. Looking later, I see that the RGAV route continues along M2565 and then turns to climb up through La Bollène. We enjoyed our quiet road interlude but we’re happy to miss any RWGPS goat tracks.

We went through the newer (big) tunnel. The cyclist in the pink jersey passed us but gives scale.

There were few flies to bother us on this climb but I was harassed by a different kind of insect. Much bigger than the usual flies, almost 2 cm long, with golden furry (?) back end and huge iridescent green eyes. I observed this while one hitched a ride for a minute on my handlebar bag. I wondered whether it woukd stay if I stopped to get my phone out to try for a picture, but then it buzzed away.

Time to replace the signs/sticker boards?

For some reason these signs have hardly any stickers.

The descent to Moulinet, on the way to Sospel, was exceptional in a different way. The effort that went into building this road! My photos don’t do it justice at all.

On the descent to Moulinet, two of a group of three cyclists who passed us. Their buddy was taking photos.

Notre-Dame de la Menour. We didn’t stop but maybe should have.

The road was spectacular below Moulinet too.

We were early for our 3 p.m. check-in so we went for lunch at a restaurant with shaded tables near the river. We opted for just plats this time but they were large.

I had the pasta of the day, which reminded me very much of a Sicilian specialty. Al had beef.

We rested in our apartment for the rest of the hot afternoon. Note to self: check how many floors you need to carry your bike up when booking apartments! We were only on the (European) second floor but it felt like more.

We walked a few metres away from the river to find a different restaurant for a light dinner. Surprise!

Al had ravioli (excellent) anc I had a tomato/mozzarella salad (very good)

Another look at the big church and the cobble-paved square. The paving was striped light and dark with an additional white design.

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,249 km (776 miles)

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