France: Col de la Bonette (2802 m)

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European Roads

2 жыл бұрын

The Col de la Bonette in the French Alps, including the loop road to Cime de la Bonette (2802 m).

Пікірлер: 18

@MrNicetux 2 жыл бұрын

Very wonderful. Thank you for showing us. 💪👍😊

@daviderapalino82 2 жыл бұрын

Beatiful video! :)

@gootchie 2 жыл бұрын

Came over here from FreewayJim. Beautiful scenery, but those sheer drops off the edge of the road are anxiety-inducing.

@jean-pierrelamblin9345 Жыл бұрын

Magnifique ! Merci pour cette évasion .....

@DrivinginCatalunya 2 жыл бұрын

An incredible landscape, to drive this road may be a unique experience, thanks for sharing!!

@roadsexplore 2 жыл бұрын

Great road to drive on, when coming from south you climb almost 3000m in altitude from Nice, it's great to see how the landscape changes pretty fast. Drove the road in 2014, unfortunately it was very foggy up there, from 2400-2500m couldn't see too much from the surroundings. Was nice to see how it looks up there, greetings from a fellow roadtripper and creator from Germany!

@sam28600 2 жыл бұрын

Nice video! The highest road in Europe is Pico de Veleta, Sierra Nevada, Spain. 3300 m

@nclr7022 2 жыл бұрын

5:18 It's more complicated. Napoleon III ordered the imperial road in 1860, but order was not followed at this time. The imperial/national road has never existed. There was only a trail expanded in the 1830s. In fact, the carriageable road from the south reached St Etienne de Tinée in 1896 (as a national road), and Bousieyas in 1937 (as a local road). In the north side, the army has built a carriageable road from Jausiers to Camp des Fourches (and only) via Restefond Pass in the 1930s, due to the threat of war. So, in the 1940s, the segment from Bousieyas to Camp des Fourches (from 0:00 to 4:53 in the video) was always missing ! (Remnants of the fear of an invasion of Nice area by the valley of the Tinée) This final segment was achieved as a departmental road after WW2, the first civil vehicles crossed the Restefond Pass in 1950. RN205 has never reached Bousieyas and Restefond Pass. The history after 1950 is also interesting : - South side : In 1959, the old military road (now route départementale), from the Camp des Fourches to Restefond Pass needed a serious upgrade. The Préfet of Alpes Maritimes (i.e. the French State) agreed to give subsidy to the departmental council for a new modern route, on the condition that it became a "prestige road". How to make it so ? Let it become the highest road in Europe ! This is the reason why the road has been extended to the Bonette Pass and they made the loop road. - North side : The road remains a very narrow (only 3 meters wide) military road after 1960. But, the army no longer provides any maintenance since the end of WW2, the road is so degraded that it is considered to close it definitively in 1976 for safety reasons. This year, on request of the local people, French Army decommissioned the road. But the classification in the departmental road network failed, and this is the commune of Jausiers which finally recovered the road. Thanks to subsidies (of the departemental council !), the road on the north side was a little improved, but, the years passed, and Jausiers lacks the means to maintain and improve it. Closure is again considered in 1982. The road is seriously deteriorating again. In 1986, to save the road, Jausiers took the radical decision to put a toll on his segment, starting in July 1986. This toll will not remain one month, it is prohibited by the prefecture on July 30, 1986 ! Finally, a single-purpose intercommunal syndicate was created in 1987, bringing together all the neighboring communes (in Ubaye Valley and Tinée Valley) for manage and improve the road. The "Syndicat Intercommunal à Vocation Unique (SIVU) de la route de la Bonette" still exists today. Subsidies from PACA, departments 04 and 06, and now Metropole Nice Côte d'Azur, have also regularly allocated since the end of 1980s, thanks to the lobbying of SIVU. The north side's road reached his current condition (paved, 5-6 meters wide) around 1990. The south side's road is again improve in the 2000's, making it a uniform road both sides of the pass.

@EuropeanRoads 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting! Thanks!

@xtrofilm 2 жыл бұрын

WOW.

@eurodrive136 2 жыл бұрын

Strange. 2.8 km and no snow. Looks like by July all melted down.

@campolindo18 2 жыл бұрын

That's sadly normal these days. Climate change is progressing very fast. Furthermore, this location is situated in the very south of the alps. In the low areas the climate is already mediterranean. So the average temperature is quite a bit higher, which leads to the fact, that there will be not much snow after April/May.

@EuropeanRoads 2 жыл бұрын

@@campolindo18 This area doesn't seem to get a whole lot of snow. There are no glaciers or permanently snow-capped mountains. The Auron ski resort near this pass currently (Feb. 6) reports only 50 cm of snow on the mountain with the last snow being a month ago.

@nclr7022 2 жыл бұрын

@@EuropeanRoads This winter is the one of the worst in the Southern Alps. Absolutely not a good example. They claim 50 cm, but this is only true on slopes with snowmaking, there is almost nothing elsewhere according to webcams. Sometimes, there is more snow here than in Savoie, Isère, etc... Isola 2000 is some years claimed snowiest ski resort of the French Alps ! The reason is southern Alps receives almost no oceanic humidity (not at all in Alpes Maritimes and Queyras) due to the rain shadow, but they receive the mediterranean rainfalls, and also the "returns from the east" in the areas near the border, provided from Adriatic and Gulf of Genova. This year, there was no such thing since November. So the thing is snow cover is more and more variable as you get closer to the Mediterranean Sea or Italy border and as you lose the oceanic influence. This is, in some valleys, almost all or nothing. And so in the summer, only convective rainfalls in southern French Alps due to the mediterranean summer drought. And it is warmer than the rest of the Alps, partly due to the low air humidity.