French Alps holiday

Jim Stynes

Not fully cycling related but I'm flying into Geneva on 12th of July. I have 5 nights in Morzine for a cycling trip. Then the wife is flying over to meet me on the 17th July and we have 10 nights. Going to drive around rather than train or bus. Don't know much about the area but would like some help with an itinerary and hotel suggestions.

What about something like:
Evian 3 nights
Montreux 2 nights
Chamoinx 2 nights
Annecy - 3 nights
Fly out of Geneva

The Tour De France is on and close to where we will be so I will hopefully get to see a bit of it as well.

As I said I know nothing about the area and no doubt there are nicer places. We are looking a bit of a mixture of sight seeing, sunbathing, few nice walks. I will have done my cycling before I start the touristy stuff so I will be happy enough not to want to go cycling, plus the wife would kill me.
Cheers

Captain Havoc

I used to live in Montreux, if you have any questions. I've also cycled from Annecy to Montreux and I cycled regularly to the outskirts of Evian, which I'm is straight forward. If you were to cycle around lake Geneva, it's flat and straight forward. There's a little short cut you can take through a wood at Villeneuve and cross a footbridge to get to le Bouveret, which will cut a couple of kms off. If you went around the lake, it's about 160-180kms, I think. On the far side of Annecy, there's a cracker of a cycle lane, flat but without interuption. Montreux is stunning though, I assume the Jazz is on when you're there?

Jim Stynes

Unfortunately my cycling will be done when I leave Morzine. The rest of the trip will just be sight seeing with the wife. Do you have any recommendations of hotels in any of those places?

Koobcam

I did the Etape du Tour back in 2013. That was based in Annecy and I flew in and out of Geneva, so I can offer a few suggestions for riding in those two places. For Annecy, here are a few routes I did:
https://www.strava.com/activities/66158105
https://www.strava.com/activities/64957816
https://www.strava.com/activities/66961547
There are loads of routes around the lake. A good spin there would be to head up to the Semnoz peak from the town via the Lake and St Joriaz. The first couple of climbs along this route were on the etape and the views are stunning. You then have a super fast 17km descent back into Annecy. One of the routes above goes to the opposite side of the lake. There is a first cat climb there that I had to bail out of just before the top because of a sudden thunderstorm. If you go to the top of that climb, you can head on towards Grand Bornand and back down towards the lake, thus taking in roads visited several times by the tour. If you want to suffer big time, you could try Annecy to Quintal and from there head up to La Semzoz-this is the climb used in the 2013 tour, where I think Quintana dropped Froome.

Geneva isn't a bad place to ride if you have any time there. I think La Saleve is the local climb (though it's actually in France, just over the border). It has spectacular views. You could also consider doing a lap of lake Geneva. If you do this, note that you should NOT follow the route I posted below for the last 20km-that stretch of road (on the French side of the border) is very congested with traffic and actually pretty dangerous for cyclists. Take the longer route closer to the lake on quieter roads.

https://www.strava.com/activities/67240220
https://www.strava.com/activities/64241209

Carawaystick

If you go to Chamonix, a good day out it to get the Cable car up the Aiguille du Midi to have a look around at the Vallee Blanch and Mont Blanc.
Come down half way to the Plan du Midi, and walk over to the Mer de Glace ~ 3 hours and get the train down to Chamonix again.

Jim Stynes

Definitely going to Chamonix so will defo check this out. Just need to get accommodation sorted now.