Back in March, with Jonathan’s leg in plaster after his Achille’s tendon rupture, and the world going into lockdown as Coronavirus spread, our Summer plans were in disarray. This blog was going to be a record of our sailing adventures: in 2020 we had planned to sail across the Biscay to Spain, work our way down the coast to Gibraltar, then enter the Mediterranean for a Summer of cruising around the beautiful coastlines of Southern Spain, the Balearic Islands and possibly reaching the French Mediterranean coast. It was clear that none of that was going to happen, and our sailing this year has been limited to a brief motor from the winter lay-up boatyard to our home port Marina: a distance of less than one mile!

However, as Jonathan’s ankle started to heal, and as lockdown measures across Europe eased, we came up with an alternative plan: to cycle from our apartment in Ste Foy Tarentaise to Nice, along the Route des Grandes Alpes; a series of high Alpine passes all the way to the coast. Officially, the route starts further North, besides Lac Léman, but as it passed our front door, it seemed churlish to head backwards just to reach the “official” start point (and, of course, a lot less effort!).

We had a great trip – highs and lows (inevitable when going from valley to mountain top each day), and terrific memories of the cycling, the places we visited, and the insight into Alpine cultures and life. We’ve lots of photos, many on the blog posts, and more to follow…

The map shows our route. Just click on the ‘pins’ for little snapshots of each day. More detail is on the blog posts (links below), and the final post from the 4th of October includes a couple of videos of the trip.