La Ville des Glaciers and Les Arcs 2000

A superb day climbing in the French Alps. The plan was for two long, beautiful, but not too steep, climbs.

Starting from Bourg-St-Maurice, I started up the south side route to Cormet de Roselend.

But after 13.5 kms I turned off to explore the little road to La Ville des Glaciers – I’d wanted to check this out for quite a long time. Beautiful. Another great little detour off the Route des Grandes Alpes.

I was able to get above the town to about 1870 metres before the road turned to gravel. It’s certainly possible to go much higher – a future hiking or mountain biking project.

The end of the road above La Ville des Glaciers:

After descending the beautiful Roselend hairpins back to Bourg-St-Maurice, it was time to cycle up to Les Arcs.

We have skied here a lot and love the 1950 village. At about 1800 metres is the most amazing gourmet restaurant – in the middle of no-where. It’s Doreen’s favourite and was her cycling goal while I did my two climbs.

The route to Les Arcs is never steep, but it’s a long way. There are milestones showing the distance and grade up to Les Arcs 1800. To 2000 is much further as the route goes around the mountain, with a few flattish kilometres.

After meeting Doreen at her feast (wow was she happy!), I did the last few steeper kilometres to the top. I suddenly found myself in the middle of a cyclosportive. I shamelessly crossed the finish to cheers heading immediately to the great French-Irish pub ‘Les Belles-Pintes” for a beverage.

Perfect day.