I thought I’d share my recent “bucket list” experience of doing this route in my 987.2S. We did our planning using Stefan Hanisch excellent book “Driving the Alps” and did the route over 3 days, heading south from Verbier to Valloire, to Jausiac and finishing in Blausasc. We didn’t go right down to Monaco as we decided to avoid that experience in favour of having time in Provence. Here are a few of my observations which maybe informative to anyone thinking about doing this route:
We took the overnight car ferry to Ouistreham and spent one night in France before heading into Switzerland and a night in Verbier before starting the Route. You don't get much sleep on the overnight ferry so this meant we were recovered in time for the drive.
The miles take a lot longer to do in the Alpes. You need a higher level of concentration than in normal day to day driving if you want to make good progress, but you do get into a bit of a flow state which helps quite a lot. For example, Verbier to Valoire was 171 miles but was a good 5 hours of driving plus stops for lunch and breaks; at least a 7 hour day.
It’s not until you do several hours behind the wheel that you discover just how comfortable - or not! - your car seats really are and if you’re in a good driving position. My basic Cayman seats completely lack the lumbar support I need so I have to use a pad to avoid sciatica and a painful right leg.
We had fabulous conditions in early September with the kids back at school and long light hours. It would be a route for the brave in short light hours and adverse conditions.
Don’t think you’re going to drive the “Monte Carlo Rally” because the condition of the roads and high levels of oncoming traffic don’t permit it.
Don’t try and do it in a big 2 metre + width car. The Cayman was ideal because the roads are quite narrow in places and we could accelerate up hill with ease to put some space between us and a crazed local driving up my exhaust pipe!
In a RHD car it’s useful to have a good co driver to keep an off side look out through the hairpins whilst the driver concentrates on the inside edge. The roads are generally in a reasonable state of repair but quickly fall away into deep ditches at the edge. Your road trip could quickly be terminated if you accidentally put a wheel in the ditch!
We carefully programmed the routes into our SatNav but there were lots of drop outs at altitude. However, the Cols are generally one road in and one road out so you can’t really go off route before the signal restores.
We ran in to quite a few well organised roadworks which sometimes had queues of up to about 10 minutes (see the photo) to let the oncoming traffic through.
On our last day we were unable to get up to Col de Turini because the road was closed for an event. However, this wasn’t at all well publicised. Google said the road was closed and Via Michelin said it was open and there was no indication of the Col being closed when we left the main road. We lost about 45 minutes and had to completely reroute to Blausasc on that day; it was a very long day!
We found far more motor bikes than cars on route. We saw lots of classic British cars and very many Porsches - mostly air cooled 911s - a handful of Ferraris and the occasional Alpine (original and A110).
Lots of people stop at the Cols to enjoy the views and admire the cars. The car parks are pretty good and there are usually some basic refreshments. They had problems due to power cuts on our trip so the wifi wasn’t working. If you didn't have cash you couldn't buy anything.
There were plenty of garages on route selling fuel. Costs were typically 2.3 Euro per litre for SP98 E5, so about 20p more per litre than the UK. Beware that they also sell SP95 E5 at some stations so take a close look before you fill up. In contrast to the UK E5 was available everywhere we went. Unlike the UK, the supermarkets weren’t necessarily the cheapest option. Overall fuel consumption was good in the Cayman at 29.9 mpg over our 2k mile trip.
The Alpine scenery was awe-inspiring and I’d like to go back to do some more. Maybe the Italian Lakes and the Susten pass next year …
We took the overnight car ferry to Ouistreham and spent one night in France before heading into Switzerland and a night in Verbier before starting the Route. You don't get much sleep on the overnight ferry so this meant we were recovered in time for the drive.
The miles take a lot longer to do in the Alpes. You need a higher level of concentration than in normal day to day driving if you want to make good progress, but you do get into a bit of a flow state which helps quite a lot. For example, Verbier to Valoire was 171 miles but was a good 5 hours of driving plus stops for lunch and breaks; at least a 7 hour day.
It’s not until you do several hours behind the wheel that you discover just how comfortable - or not! - your car seats really are and if you’re in a good driving position. My basic Cayman seats completely lack the lumbar support I need so I have to use a pad to avoid sciatica and a painful right leg.
We had fabulous conditions in early September with the kids back at school and long light hours. It would be a route for the brave in short light hours and adverse conditions.
Don’t think you’re going to drive the “Monte Carlo Rally” because the condition of the roads and high levels of oncoming traffic don’t permit it.
Don’t try and do it in a big 2 metre + width car. The Cayman was ideal because the roads are quite narrow in places and we could accelerate up hill with ease to put some space between us and a crazed local driving up my exhaust pipe!
In a RHD car it’s useful to have a good co driver to keep an off side look out through the hairpins whilst the driver concentrates on the inside edge. The roads are generally in a reasonable state of repair but quickly fall away into deep ditches at the edge. Your road trip could quickly be terminated if you accidentally put a wheel in the ditch!
We carefully programmed the routes into our SatNav but there were lots of drop outs at altitude. However, the Cols are generally one road in and one road out so you can’t really go off route before the signal restores.
We ran in to quite a few well organised roadworks which sometimes had queues of up to about 10 minutes (see the photo) to let the oncoming traffic through.
On our last day we were unable to get up to Col de Turini because the road was closed for an event. However, this wasn’t at all well publicised. Google said the road was closed and Via Michelin said it was open and there was no indication of the Col being closed when we left the main road. We lost about 45 minutes and had to completely reroute to Blausasc on that day; it was a very long day!
We found far more motor bikes than cars on route. We saw lots of classic British cars and very many Porsches - mostly air cooled 911s - a handful of Ferraris and the occasional Alpine (original and A110).
Lots of people stop at the Cols to enjoy the views and admire the cars. The car parks are pretty good and there are usually some basic refreshments. They had problems due to power cuts on our trip so the wifi wasn’t working. If you didn't have cash you couldn't buy anything.
There were plenty of garages on route selling fuel. Costs were typically 2.3 Euro per litre for SP98 E5, so about 20p more per litre than the UK. Beware that they also sell SP95 E5 at some stations so take a close look before you fill up. In contrast to the UK E5 was available everywhere we went. Unlike the UK, the supermarkets weren’t necessarily the cheapest option. Overall fuel consumption was good in the Cayman at 29.9 mpg over our 2k mile trip.
The Alpine scenery was awe-inspiring and I’d like to go back to do some more. Maybe the Italian Lakes and the Susten pass next year …
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