Col de la Croix-Haute

Col de la Croix-Haute

The Col de la Croix-Haute, 1,176 m, on the border of the Drôme and the Isère in France, is one of the dividing lines between the Southern and Northern Alps. The old main road from Marseille to Grenoble crosses it, and so does the Alps railway, which opened in 1878 and reaches its highest point here. For cyclists the col is a long, steady climb rather than a steep one.

This ride climbs north up the Buëch valley through La Faurie and Saint-Julien-en-Beauchêne, a village Jean Giono knew well; he set his novel Un de Baumugnes (1929) in one of its hamlets. The road bypasses Lus-la-Croix-Haute, the commune where the Buëch rises, and runs beside the railway and its viaduct to the col. The ride ends just over it, in the Isère.