Heading North, via Col d’Allos, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France

Sunday 5th and Monday 6th October 2025

We have started our journey back north. Not sure of the route yet, but a bit of progress over the last two days.

Sunday – Col d’Allos:

Staying within the Verdon area initially, we headed up the large reservoir and across the dam, which was an EDF hydro electric generation plant:

We passed through some beautiful scenery:

We headed for the Col d’Allos as it looked a scenic route. The road was wide and well made, until we reached the ski resort, La Foux d’Allos, then we turned right…

The road was good enough at first, then we came to where it said no access for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes. We know Fufu is under that, so we thought, no problem.

The road became very steep and narrow very quickly and there were also vehicles coming down towards us. On most of the road, with hairpin bends one after another, there were only occasional places to pass and we had to stop even for motorcycles. Photography was not my main priority at this point. Added to this, much of the ascent did not have any sort of barrier or margin for error. Being on the right hand side of the vehicle, at times I could only see a huge, steep drop out of my door window. Needless to say, I didn’t get out of 2nd gear and some of it was in 1st.

The Col was at 2338 metres according to the sat nav. That is more than 1.3 miles up!

It was with some relief that we descended on the other side without much incident (again in 2nd gear), except for meeting a huge flock of sheep and goats, which took at least 15 minutes to pass us.

As we descended towards our overnight stay, we noticed these strange rock formations on the hillside, next to the road.

Monday – To La Mure:

After spending a peaceful night at a place called Crots, just near a huge lake, we moved on again north, this time avoiding steep and narrow single track roads. (Note to self: Any road which says vehicles over 3.5 tonnes are not allowed, will not be driven along).

The N94 took us across the lake on a long causeway bridge then on to the town of Gap before turning north. This is a main road, but it still gets pretty spectacular in places, with some hairpin bends.

We rest tonight at a town called La Mure. It looked attractive online but was a bit disappointing in reality. It didn’t help that it is Monday, and in France many places are closed every Monday. Added to that, we are clearly visiting out of season. There were some interesting historic buildings however:

An information board showed the street scene in 1921, so I took it again for comparison:

The Chateau appears to have been converted into apartments. I love the turrets and the amazing craftsmanship in creating them.:

That is all for today. TTFN and see-u-later.