photos by: Francis
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There is no 'best' or 'worst' route through these gorges - all three roads have fantastic views in places, but some hard, dreary climbs too.
This road along the northern side is much the easier route, offering many excellent views, and climbs to 1032m, at the Col d'Ayen. The top picture is near the western end, not far from another col, the Col d'Olivier 711m, barely noticeable though a much better viewpoint than the higher parts of this road.
The second picture is near the eastern end.
This is the main road, but we've never found it too busy.
It is possible to ride a complete circuit at high level above the tiny blue-green ribbon of river.
By riding the circuit anti-clockwise you can take the uninteresting part of the southern road as a descent, which gets it over quite quickly - the other way its a tough big climb with long stretches of little or nothing to see.The Route des Cretes is an optional mini-circuit of 22km which branches off from the north route near the middle, its highly recommended but like both the main roads it has good points and bad points.
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