A 122-kilometre loop that fits into half a day, without a single metre of motorway: five Chartreuse passes on the way out — Vence, Palaquit, Porte, Cucheron and Granier —, the Cirque de Saint-Même at the head of its valley, then the ride home along the Grésivaudan balcony road and the Plateau des Petites Roches. We rode it on 17 August 2026 with Virgile Didier, a Freeride World Tour skier. The track on this page is the one recorded that morning, from the handlebars.
Base map © IGN · Géoplateforme. This is our own track, recorded from the handlebars on 17/08/2026. Check road conditions before you set off.
There is no run-up on this ride. You leave the shop, cross the Isère, and the Chartreuse road starts climbing in Corenc. Eight kilometres later you are at the Col de Vence, another eight more and you are at the Col de Porte: the height gain comes straight away, which is why the loop totals 3,700 metres of climbing in only 122 kilometres.
This loop has a peculiarity: it stacks five passes into 55 kilometres, and the first one comes barely past the last traffic lights in Grenoble. The Chartreuse road leaves Corenc and climbs straight away — Col de Vence (782 m) at kilometre eight, Col de Palaquit (1,154 m) at kilometre fourteen, Col de Porte (1,326 m) at kilometre seventeen. Three passes before the twentieth kilometre, and the high point of the day is already behind you.
Dropping down to Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse changes the scenery completely: you leave a forest road for an open valley floor, the Charmant Som on your left and the Grand Som closing the valley to the north. The Col du Cucheron (1,140 m), at kilometre thirty, is the real turning point of the loop: from the top the view opens due north onto the Granier wall, the one you will go and fetch twenty-five kilometres further on. The descent into the Entremonts is long, flowing and shaded.
At Saint-Pierre-d'Entremont you leave the main road to follow the Guiers Vif valley eastwards. The road narrows, runs beside the torrent, crosses an old humpbacked stone bridge at Saint-Même-d'en-Bas, then threads through the hamlets to the toll. Six kilometres of dead end — the only stretch of the day that doubles back, and it is worth the detour.
Following the Guiers Vif upstream is the narrowest and coolest part of the day: woodland, the torrent on your right, old stone bridges. It ends at the toll, where you pay €3 for the bike before parking and finishing on foot up to the cliffs.
This is the pivot of the day, and the reason this loop exists. The Guiers Vif valley ends in an amphitheatre of limestone cliffs several hundred metres high, closed on three sides. The torrent rises there and drops in four successive waterfalls. In mid-August it runs as a trickle and lays bare its whole bed of white pebbles: you walk on what is a torrent in spring.
The site is listed and part of the Hauts de Chartreuse nature reserve. That means a few simple rules, posted at the entrance: park in the marked bays, stay on the waymarked paths, keep dogs on a lead as far as the waterfall path and off it beyond that, and neither camping nor fires are allowed inside the cirque.
| Getting there | Route de Saint-Même from Saint-Pierre-d'Entremont (Savoie), a 6 km dead end |
|---|---|
| Motorcycle rate | 3 € |
| Toll | 9 am to 5 pm: every day from 4 July to 31 August; Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 4 April to 4 July and from 5 to 27 September |
| Rest of the year | Free access |
| Beyond the car parks | Closed to motor vehicles (motorcycles, scooters, cars) without a permit |
| On foot | Path to the head of the cirque 0.6 km (≈ 10 min) · waterfall path 1.1 km (≈ 40 min) |
Bring the toll money, and remember to fit the lock supplied with the bike: it stays in the car park while you walk up. We spent half an hour there, long enough to reach the head of the cirque and come back; allow twice that if you want to climb to the waterfalls.
From Saint-Pierre-d'Entremont the D912 climbs to Entremont-le-Vieux and then to the Col du Granier (1,134 m), sitting exactly at the foot of the north face of Mont Granier — a 700-metre limestone wall, the one that collapsed in 1248 and buried several villages. There is an inn at the pass, a terrace and yellow parasols: the natural coffee stop of the loop, if you have more time than we had that morning.
After the Granier the loop tips over into the Isère and comes home along the eastern flank of the Chartreuse. The Route des Petites Roches and the Sainte-Marie-du-Mont balcony look across at Belledonne on the far side of the valley — the finest hour of the day, and the quietest.
The descent to Chapareillan drops into the Grésivaudan, and that is where the road gets interesting again. Instead of riding home down the valley, you take the Route des Petites Roches : a lane and a half wide, a stone parapet above the Cernon gorge, then the Sainte-Marie-du-Mont balcony road clinging to the flank of the Chartreuse. You drop back down to Le Touvet, then climb the hairpins up to the Plateau des Petites Roches, and ride home to Grenoble through Saint-Pancrasse and Bernin. Apart from the six kilometres of the Saint-Même valley, no stretch is ridden twice.
Back at the shop at the end of the loop. Fuel at the Total station right next door, and a pressure wash straight after: between the Entremonts and the verges of the Route des Petites Roches, the bikes needed it. Bikes come back full, and clean if the ride has dirtied them — routine servicing is on us. And there is no better place to see to it than fifty metres from the shop.
Virgile Didier is a professional skier competing on the Freeride World Tour, the world championship of the discipline. Born in Chamonix into a family of mountain-hut keepers, he followed the classic competition path — ski club until he was 17, then the FIS circuit — before switching to freeride. He won the 2023-2024 Freeride World Qualifier, which opened the Tour to him, and took his first world podium with a third place at the 2025 Georgia Pro, two backflips along the way, finishing the season eighth overall.
Out of season he works as a carpenter and joiner and helps out at the family hut. He skis on Black Crows Corvus V, which he developed with Julien Regnier. In short: someone who knows the mountains from the top down, and who was discovering them that morning from the road.
The Chartreuse is Grenoble’s own massif: the only one where you link three passes within the first twenty kilometres, on wide, undemanding roads. For a first motorcycle ride in the Alps, it is the best training ground around.
Yes, €3 per motorcycle. The toll run by the commune of Saint-Pierre-d'Entremont operates from 9 am to 5 pm, every day from 4 July to 31 August, then on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 4 April to 4 July and from 5 to 27 September. Outside those dates access is free.
No. Beyond the car parks the road is closed to motor vehicles — motorcycles, scooters and cars — without a permit. You leave the bike in the paying car park and finish on foot: about ten minutes to the head of the cirque on the waymarked path, around forty minutes for the waterfall path.
A full half day, and a whole day if you want to climb to the waterfalls or stop for lunch. We made a single stop, at the cirque, and our running time is no benchmark: a hundred and twenty-two kilometres of mountain roads with five passes and a walk in the middle deserve to be savoured.
Yes, comfortably: the rental includes 200 km on the first day and the loop is 122. That leaves room to extend it — over the Charmant Som or the Col du Coq — or simply to take your time.
Yes. All five passes are on wide, well-surfaced departmental roads, with no technical section. Only the Route des Petites Roches between Chapareillan and Sainte-Marie-du-Mont is narrow in places and should be taken gently. Our Triumphs and our Suzuki GSX-8S are A2-restricted.
April to October. The Chartreuse passes are low, but the head of the Saint-Même valley stays cold and the cirque toll only operates in season. Check road conditions the day before you leave, in both the Isère and the Savoie.
Our Triumphs, Suzukis and BMWs (A2 and A licences) are prepared, insured and serviced. Book online, self-service pick-up 24/7 in Grenoble.
Two roadsters from the fleet, both A2-restrictable, with a top box for the day. They are the ones you see in the photographs on this page: the Trident on gold wheels, the GSX-8S on red ones.
The roadster leading the way in the Cucheron and Saint-Pancrasse tunnel photographs. Flexible low down, at ease in the hairpins of the Chartreuse.
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The twin on red wheels, the one on the Saint-Même bridge and at the Col du Granier. Torque from low revs, which suits a mountain pass.
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