The French Alps & Nice in October?

Spangle12

Need some advice about weather and routes around Nice, France in October.

I've got a week off and want to go bike packing on a 5/6 day loop from Nice. Nice is a cheap and easy location to fly to at that time of year and I'm hoping that it will be relatively mild. The plan is hotels so camping is not a worry. Its just the riding weather and daylight.

What i'd really like to though is get higher up into the Alps and go a bit north. Maybe loosely following the French Italian border and then looping back to Nice. Is it realistic to be able to that in October with the weather? Has anyone done road & gravel routes around there? Was thinking about 80-100k days

mercia_man

I think you'll be risking it a bit on weather if you venture up the big passes. I've ridden up the Bonette in mid-September from Med-style warmth at St Sauveur-sur-Tinee into a whiteout blizzard at the top. Night falls surprisingly early in September and has caught me out a few times. Days would be even shorter in October.

But I love the cycling around the French/Italian border such as L'Authion and the Col de Turini in the Mercantour national park. And the weather there is more likely to be better than further north. One off-road route I have done in the area is between La Tour and Utelle - pretty challenging but good.

For good cycling, quiet lanes, very steep climbs and some gravel roads, I can recommend the Var region north of Vence and very handy to get to from Nice. Places like Gourdon, Greolieres, Sigale, Aiglun, St Auban and the Col de Bleine are well worth seeking out.

imafatman

Var is a brilliant place to ride, you could do a loop from Nice going north west along the destinations suggested above, pass by the Gorge du Verdon or Castellan. Then maybe drop down into the valley.

There are some absolutely fantastic gravel fire roads in and around Les Adrets and the Lac Saint-Cassien. Not sure how far they stretch but I've done 120km loops on Gravel around there and they never seem to end.

There are some really interesting mountainous routes, not quite as impressive as the alps but not sure you want to to too far in October as it could be somewhat cold.

Spangle12

That's great advice guys. Thanks so much. I have been to vence before on the motorbike and I do remember it being really nice.

I'll start plotting routes and see what it looks like. How did you find the gravel roads? Are they marked on any particular maps (Google, Strava, ordnance survey) with the appropriate rights of way?

mercia_man

I’m old school and use paper maps- either Michelin 1:200,000 which is perfect for touring or IGN 1:100,000 which is unbeatable for detail. Both show unsurfaced roads with a solid line one side and dotted on the other. Forest roads marked RF on Michelin can be great - sometimes good tarmac, sometimes gravel.

I buy a ring binder Michelin 1:200,000 atlas every few years and rip out the individual pages for carrying in my jersey pocket, with phone for backup to pinpoint location on Open Maps using ViewRanger app. I have never had an issue with rights of way.

cougie

How high are you going? I've known tour stages over the Galibier to be cancelled on July.

I'd have backup plans to stay low of the weather is bad.

davidof

Spangle12 wrote:

Need some advice about weather and routes around Nice, France in October.

I've got a week off and want to go bike packing on a 5/6 day loop from Nice. Nice is a cheap and easy location to fly to at that time of year and I'm hoping that it will be relatively mild. The plan is hotels so camping is not a worry. Its just the riding weather and daylight.

What i'd really like to though is get higher up into the Alps and go a bit north. Maybe loosely following the French Italian border and then looping back to Nice. Is it realistic to be able to that in October with the weather? Has anyone done road & gravel routes around there? Was thinking about 80-100k days

October is generally good weather and warm (25ish in the valleys) but you can get snowstorms blowing through dumping about 20-30cm of snow which will then melt in a few days. From Vingtimille I've taken a military road all the way up the Italian side of the border to the Col de Tende then back down through the Mercantour park. You could do that on a gravel bike. I stayed in hotels but they may not be open October. Basically I did:

Vingtimille -> Pigna
Pigna -> Monesi
Monesi -> Col de Tende
Then down the Mercantour side via the Authion fort. Quite a few of the trails on the French side don't allow bikes. I ignored that.

ronnierocket

As a bit of an aside because you mentioned Nice and there is ferry from Nice to Corsica but have you thought about Corsica. Loads of great cycling, bit further south for the weather. Just back from a couple of weeks there, amazing place beach to trees and mountain lakes in an hour ish after a 20km climb.

The tour started there in 2013

e.g.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1732732376