The best driving roads in France

France gives the European driver the longest continuous good road in the Alps: the Route des Grandes Alpes, 720 kilometres from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean across seventeen passes. Driven properly, it's a week-long pilgrimage that crosses every kind of alpine terrain — the high Savoie passes, the Vanoise, the Galibier, the Izoard, and the descent into Provence above Nice.

Beyond the Grandes Alpes, France's driving country is varied and rewarding. The Cols of the Pyrenees offer a quieter, wilder alternative to the Alps. The Gorges du Verdon weave through Provence's limestone canyons. The volcanic Massif Central feels almost lunar. And for those willing to drive sensibly, even the routes nationales of central France remain proper driving roads.

French roads vary in surface, with the major cols generally well-maintained and the smaller departmental routes more variable. Toll motorways (autoroutes) are excellent but expensive — a Geneva–Nice run will cost you. The compensation is the quality of the alpine routes themselves: longer, more varied, and less traffic-choked than their Italian counterparts.