France · Riviera → Alps · Premium route guide
Route Napoléon (N85)
430 kilometres on the N85 from the Riviera to Grenoble — the road Napoleon took in 1815 when he escaped Elba, and one of the great cross-France transit rides today. Full route on the map, a GPX for your GPS, and rider-vetted stays along the way.
- Distance
- 430 km
- Peak elevation
- 1,862 m
- Elevation gain
- 6,622 m
- Best months
- Apr–Oct
The route
The N85 leaves the Mediterranean at Golfe-Juan, climbs through the perfumeries of Grasse, crosses the Verdon country via Castellane, tracks up the Durance through Digne and Sisteron, and finishes at Grenoble at the foot of the Alps. Pins are motorcycle-friendly stays other riders have vetted.
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Works with Garmin, TomTom, BMW Navigator, Calimoto, Kurviger, komoot, MyRouteApp. Import as a track to ride the exact line. Road data from OpenStreetMap (ODbL); elevation from SRTM.
Track vs. route — how to load this into your GPS
What you're downloading is a GPX track — a dense, road-snapped breadcrumb of the exact line, with elevation on every point. It's not a GPX route (a short list of turn waypoints your device re-plans between). Tracks preserve our road choice; routes let the device pick its own way and can send you down a boring motorway shortcut.
How to use it on your navigator:
- BMW Navigator / Garmin Zumo / zūmo XT: import as a track, then Convert to Route (or Trip Planner → new trip from track) if you want turn-by-turn prompts. Keep Recalculation off so it stays on our line.
- TomTom Rider: import the GPX in MyDrive — it loads as a track / itinerary. Enable Follow the exact route so it doesn't re-plan.
- Calimoto: open the GPX and choose Import as tour — Calimoto follows the track line.
- Kurviger / komoot / MyRouteApp: open the GPX and pick Import as track to keep the road choice. Only choose Import as route if you want the app to re-plan for your bike profile.
- Google Maps / Apple Maps: these don't read GPX. Use the map on this page for turn cues, or import the file into a GPX-capable app first.
Rule of thumb: if your device asks "track or route?", pick track to ride our exact line — pick route only if you want the device to re-plan.
Elevation profile
From ~12 m at the base to 1862 m at the top — 6,622 m of total climbing across the route.
Two days is the usual pace, with an overnight around Digne or Sisteron. The first third — Golfe-Juan to Castellane — is the busy tourist bit and worth clearing early in the morning. Everything from Castellane north is the road you came for: long empty valleys, small towns with a plane-tree square, and the Alps growing on the horizon.
The whole thing is signed as "Route Napoléon" with little bronze eagles on posts along the roadside. Follow the eagles, not just the GPX — the signed route occasionally uses the D-road parallel to the N85, and it's always the better ride.
The road, honestly
This is one of the great transit rides in Europe. Not because any single section is spectacular the way an Alpine pass is, but because the sequence of landscapes is so satisfying — you leave the Côte d'Azur in shorts and land in the Alps needing your thermals, and everything in between is scenic without being difficult. It's the ride you do to get to the Alps if you're coming from Italy or the south, and it deserves two days of its own rather than being knocked off in six hours.
Traffic is heaviest between Cannes and Grasse (commuter belt) and thins out completely north of Castellane. Above Sisteron the road opens into the Buëch valley — long third-gear sweepers, wide sightlines, almost no cars.
The history, briefly
Napoleon landed at Golfe-Juan on 1 March 1815 with 700 men after escaping Elba. He marched them along this route to Grenoble to reclaim France — 325 km in six days, no motorway, no cavalry, and enough charisma that the King's own regiments joined him instead of shooting him. The bronze eagles along the road mark the actual route he took. You'll ride it faster.
Where to break the ride
Digne-les-Bains is the natural midpoint — 175 km in from Golfe-Juan, spa town, plenty of rider-friendly hotels, and the last big town before the road narrows into the Buëch. Sisteron is the alternative — smaller, more dramatic (fortress on a rock above the Durance), and puts you closer to the Alps for a day-two ride into the Vercors or Écrins.
If you're going onwards, the natural next-day loop is Grenoble → Alpe d'Huez → Col du Galibier, which puts you on our Galibier route with a proper overnight in Briançon.
Weather and fuel
Rideable April through October. Sisteron and Digne can be cold before mid-April and after mid-October — check the forecast for Col Bayard (north of Corps) which is the highest point on the route. Snow in April is possible; in July it's 30°C plus.
Fuel is easy — this is a French main road, stations every 30–40 km. Grasse, Castellane, Digne and Sisteron all have supermarket stations (cheapest).
What to see along the way
- Grasse — Perfume capital. Traffic-heavy but the old town is worth 20 minutes.
- Castellane — Gateway to the Gorges du Verdon. Natural coffee stop with a rock chapel above the town.
- Digne-les-Bains — Spa town at the midpoint. The classic overnight.
- Sisteron — Fortress town on the Durance — one of the great skyline arrivals in French motorcycling.
- Col Bayard (1,246 m) — Highest point on the route, between Corps and Gap. Wide, open, alpine-feeling — the first proper mountain of the trip.
- La Mure — Old mining town above Grenoble. The Route stays high before dropping into the city — take a coffee here before the descent.
Rent a bike
Rent a motorcycle or scooter for Route Napoléon (N85)
Flying in? Pick up a bike near the start of the route. We've pre-filled the pick-up city with Sisteron / Digne-les-Bains — change it if you're basing elsewhere.
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Rider-verified stays within 30 km
Automatically selected by proximity to the traced route — no editorial cherry-picking. Sorted by how close they are to the road.
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