Most beautiful passes in the Alps: Col de l'Iseran

This is a road that does more than just connect two valleys: they tell a story, whisper a myth, sculpt the landscape of the Alpine soul. The road of the Iseran Pass, between Bourg-Saint-Maurice et modane, is one of them. At 2764 meters, the Iseran is the highest road pass in the French Alps, and it crosses not only a geographical barrier, but also an invisible border between two worlds : Tarentaise and Maurienne, Savoie of water and Savoie of rock.

From Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Val d'Isère: the Haute-Tarentaise along the Isère

Bourg Saint Maurice, a town surrounded by passes closed in winter

The road starts at Bourg-Saint-Maurice, which the locals affectionately call Bourg, because it is here that the heart of the upper Tarentaise has always beaten. Ancient city, strategic post on the Roman road to the Alps, a Upper Tarentaise, Bourg was for a long time a place of control and passageAt the confluence of the Isère and several transalpine roads, it was successively a commercial crossroads, border town under the Duchy of Savoy, and military post in the Sardinian era, before becoming what it is today: a tourist and railway hub, gateway to the largest resorts in the region.

The old town preserves precious vestiges: cobbled streets lined with stone facades, Rochefort towerFew patrician houses with carved lintels, and theSaint Maurice church, with its Romanesque bell tower whose stones tell the story of the medieval age. During the Second World War, Bourg-Saint-Maurice played a key role in the defense of the Alps, and one can still guess, behind the current serenity, the invisible traces of the withdrawal lines, the underground tunnels and the cantonments.

The road leaves the town to climb along the Isère, through valleys carved out by glaciers, where green mountain pastures et spruce forests. On the right, it is the Mount Rotten, overlooking the valley from a height of 3779 meters. Its name, which always intrigues, comes from the old Savoyard word " rotten » — the crumbly rock — and not of any bad reputation. In front of him, the domes of Vanoise block the horizon like a natural rampart.

Tignes, the story of a village moved from one lake to another

A little higher up, the landscape changes: you arrive at the old site of Tignes, or rather, what remains of it. Because the original village of Tignes no longer exists: it now lies underwater. In 1952, the French State launched the construction of the Tignes dam, a feat of hydroelectric engineering, but a painful decision for the inhabitants. The old village is submerged, a concrete virgin is cast into the lake, and the families relocated higher up. Today, the Chevril lake reflects in its turquoise waters the silhouette of distant Mont Blanc, and an immense 90-meter-high fresco of Hercules, painted on the dam wall in 1989 by Jean-Marie Pierret, dominates the valley like a mythological sentinel. Today, the modern Tignes welcomes its visitors to the shores of Lake Tignes, frozen for five months a year in a setting of absolute whiteness.

Val d'Isère, a former high-altitude village transformed into a luxury resort

The road goes around the lake, runs alongside the hamlet of Chevril, before reaching the heights of Val d'Isere, a world-famous resort, but whose history goes back well before skiing. Originally, Val d'Isère was a village of shepherds and ferrymen, clinging to a harsh, windswept valley on the edge of the Iseran pass.Saint-Bernard-de-Menthon church, patron saint of mountaineers and travelers, bears witness to this: it was built to offer a spiritual refuge to those who dared to cross the pass, once difficult and perilous.

Today, beyond the modern chalets and cable cars, the soul of Val d'Isere remains in its ancient hamlets, its stone alleys, and in the murmur of the Isère which rushes down the gorges. From here, the road ceases to be a simple access route: it becomes high altitude path, defying the heavens, in search of light and silence.

Climbing the Iseran from Val d'Isère — Val d'Isère in summer

The climb to the Col de l'Iseran: an adventure for cyclists

From the hamlet of Fornet to the Col de l'Iseran

At the exit of Val d'Isere, the road rises gently towards the Furnace, the last inhabited hamlet before the heights. This peaceful village, nestled in the hollow of a clearing, still displays its authentic chalets, made of blond stone and old wood. The granaries on stilts, called mazots, the sculpted fountains, the dry stone walls evoke an ancestral mountain life, punctuated by the seasons and transhumance.

Very quickly, the asphalt enters a mineral universe, That of Malpasset Gorges, whose name speaks volumes about its harshness: it was here that, in the past, travelers faced falling rocks, late avalanches, and gusts of wind from the glaciers. The road does not cross them, it leaves them on the left side after the Saint-Charles BridgeAn old stone bridge, erected above the lively Isère, marks the passage to the heights: a threshold between two worlds. The shepherds of yesteryear would stop there. Today, cyclists catch their breath there, walkers marvel at it, and marmots whistle in the shade of the rocks.

Then, each turn reveals a little more of the kingdom above: hanging meadows, eternal snowfields, moving scree, solitary larches miraculously hung together.

The climb continues in regular laces, marked by old markers, vestiges of the titanic construction site undertaken in the 1930s. The Iseran Pass road was inaugurated in 1937, the result of a strategic and tourist project supported by the State and the Touring Club de France. Through this route, the aim was to connect two large valleys, but also to assert the French presence on the ridges, facing a threatening fascist Italy. The road was designed to respect the relief, without viaducts or tunnels: a slate line following the mountain, like a giant's path.

Altitude of the Iseran Pass — Iseran, the highest road pass in France

The Iseran Pass: above the borders

Finally, the pass appears. 2764 meters above sea level, a gray stone chapel, sober and squat, rises up against the void. Dedicated to Our Lady of All Prudence, it was built at the same time as the road, to protect travelers and workers from the heights. Here, silence reigns. Only the wind allows itself to speak loudly, carrying the cries of birds of prey and the distant cracking of glaciers. Except when the crowd gathers as the runners pass by. Tour de France !

The landscape is lunar, streaked with gneiss blocks, residual snow patchesand of temporary lakes formed by melting. We can see the domes of Vanoise, Grand Fond mountain, and, in clear weather, the Italian Grand Paradise, the Alpine cousin of these borderlands. Remains of military barracks remain, scattered like granite tombstones, testifying to the time when Iseran was also a strategic lookout post, between French Savoy and Italian Piedmont.

And yet, despite its height, the Iseran is not a border. It is a passage, a official, call to elsewhere. As Roger Frison-Roche wrote:
"In Iseran, we don't look at the mountain: we look through it, like we look through a window open onto infinity."

In its Mountain Journal, Samivel wrote: “Iseran is the place where silence becomes matter, and the sky, a territory to be climbed.”

The descent of the Iseran to Modane

The descent towards Bonneval sur Arc

As soon as you cross the pass, the road plunges into a raw universe, wild, fiercely alpine. The Maurienne slope of the Iseran is steeper, harsher than its Tarin counterpart. Here, no village for a long time, no immediate gentleness: the mountain reigns supreme.

The first bends descend the mountainside, cutting through the relief like a thread in the slate fabric. The slopes are striated by ravines, dug by avalanches, bristling with erratic blocks abandoned by ancient glaciers. The light there is sharp, almost mineral, sculpting the reliefs at dawn and drowning them in shadow from the afternoon.

Very quickly, in a flat area nestled at the foot of the walls, emerges Bonneval sur Arc. Ranked among the most beautiful villages in FranceThis jewel suspended on the edge of silence has miraculously escaped modern distortions. houses are made of dry stone, thick slate roofs, cobblestone paths, granite drinking troughs still in use. No visible electrical wires, no garish concrete: here, everything seems to be part of the continuity of the centuries.

The village is a Alpine architectural model. The granaries on stilts, the Baraccas, the low carved doors, everything bears witness to a harsh but organized life. The Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption church, modest in appearance, contains baroque furnishings of great finesse, with its gilded wooden altarpieces, its frescoes and its processional statues, once carried in the passes to chase away the storm.

From Bonneval, several paths lead to the heights:
– The hamlet of the Ecot, intact, frozen in time, accessible on foot or by bike via a bucolic path running along the gorges.
– The refuge of the Cart, in the world of snowfields and ibex, accessible to seasoned hikers.
– Or even the Iseran road, which some brave souls climb by bike from Bonneval, offering themselves a legendary challenge.

Summer hiking in Bessans — The landscape around Bessans

Towards Bessans: the village of devils... in wood

Leaving Bonneval, the road widens slightly, following the curve of the Arc which descends, wild and clear. We follow the Duis mountain pastures, where tarines graze freely, and torrents form foamy cascades on the rocky slabs. In the distance, the summit of Bessanèse stands out in the background, carved like a Tibetan temple.

Then, at an altitude of 1750 meters, appears Bessan, village of strong souls and powerful imagination. Here, everything speaks of religion, myth and harshness. People still worship devils of Bessans, small wooden figures, half-protective, half-burlesque, born from a quarrel between priest and sacristan in the 19th century. Today they adorn balconies, fountains, and corners of paths — silent guardians of winter and dreams.

THESt. John the Baptist Church, with its onion-domed bell tower and restored frescoes, stands in the heart of the town. Around it, the Museum of Sacred Art, the Saint-Antoine Chapel and the old cemetery bear witness to a rich spiritual past, where popular Catholicism is intertwined with ancient beliefs.

But Bessans is also a natural sanctuary. In a few steps, we reach the Avérole valley, a realm of silence, where trails lead to the refuge, at the foot of the glaciers. There, nature is untouched. The moraines tell of the retreat of the ice. The bearded vultures fly in spirals. And the walker suddenly realizes that he is walking in a world that asks for nothing but to be looked at.

From Val Cenis to Modane: between stone memories and deep forests

The road leaves Bessan as if descending from a sanctuary. The air warms, the slopes soften. Very quickly, the valley opens up, wide and bright, towards Val Cenis, a vast commune born from the grouping of the historic villages of Termignon, Lanslebourg et Lanslevillard. Here, each village preserves his own personality, shaped by centuries of history and high-altitude struggles.

À Lanslevillard,Saint-Michel church displays a magnificent gilded baroque altarpiece, a testament to a deep-rooted spirituality. The cemetery, open to the ridges, is a place of silence and homage. Higher up, the hilltop hamlets of Chantelouve and Collet offer a plunging view of the valley, between mountain pastures and Swiss pines.

À Lanslebourg, on the edge of the Arc, we discover theSaint Sebastian Church, whose interior frescoes evoke the great scenes of the Bible in a vivid palette. The cobbled streets, the sculpted door frames, the arcaded houses recall the commercial past of this stage of Mont-Cenis, once a crossroads for muleteers and diplomats.

Then comes Termignon, at the confluence of water and stone. There we admire the community ovens still in operation, the rustic chapels, and especially the paths towards the Turra ou the Lake Plan, veritable balconies overlooking the Vanoise massif. In summer, the waterfalls roar, the herds ascend, the marmots stand up. In winter, silence falls like a cloak.

The Esseillon forts: stone against stone

Leaving Val Cenis, the valley becomes narrower, more steep-sided. It suddenly tightens into a steep gorge where one of the most impressive complexes of Alpine military heritage stands: many Esseillon forts.

Clinging to both banks of the canyon, they were built at the beginning of the 19th century by the Kingdom of Sardinia to block access to Italy. Fort Marie-Christine, Fort Charles-Félix, Fort Victor Emmanuel : so many monarchical names placed like chess stones. On the cliffside, galleries, casemates, powder magazines and guardhouses draw a remarkable defensive network, sometimes unfinished, often reused, never useless to contemplate.

Today, some of these forts are restored and open to visitors. There you can discover exhibitions on military life in the mountains, but above all spectacular panoramas on the gorges, the ridges, and the villages below. The more adventurous will follow the suspended walkways or the hand-drawn military trails in the steep slopes.

Modane: between land, tunnel and wartime

Last turn, last straight. modane appears in a valley bottom, both industrial and secret, often unknown, always crossed. Since 1871, it has been one of the major entry points into Alpine France: the Fréjus railway tunnel, pierced under the mountain, made it a city of passage, customs, logistics, and, sometimes, forgotten.

But Modane hides treasures:
THEChurch of Our Lady of the Assumption, rebuilt after the bombings of 1944, with modern stained glass windows that tell of the restored peace and the Replaton Fort, dominating the town, formerly connected to Fort Saint-Gobain by underground galleries.

The road is coming to an end. It has taken you over mountain passes, past glaciers, and across centuries. Through peaks, stones, and steeples, it is an entire Alpine civilization which revealed itself: made of passages, resistances, beauty. A road, here, is never a straight line: it is a memory in laces.

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