Chalets de Pertuis

The other day while riding through the vallée verte I saw a path up high in the distance that looked very intriguing. After the ride, I did a little map reading and concluded it must be the road up to Chalets de Pertuis. Of course I “needed” to ride it.

As the profile shows, it’s a seriously steep little road. It’s paved, but poorly, until Buchille at 1435 metres. But frankly I wouldn’t recommend a road bike. After Buchille, the last 1.8 kilometres are a fun gravel road until Chalets de Pertuis.

It certainly seemed like a geographic col to me, but IGN doesn’t label it as such. Views over the “col”:

There is no road over the top, but I knew if I could get down a kilometre or so I should find a gravel road. The hiking trail wasn’t bad and it soon flattened out.

Me searching for a road:

It’s impossible to miss the gravel road down. But wow is it steep. I walked much of the top half of the descent — very rough and easily 30% in places.

I finally reached the main road below, as I started to loop back to the start, I found I had a flat tire and somehow had forgotten a pump. I had a cartridge, but not surprisingly It set off and didn’t inflate my tire.

Only 18 kms to the car. So some walking/running, hitchhiking, more hiking, another hitchhike, and a final four kms by foot. But I survived!

A stunning little loop that requires a mountain bike …… and a pump!