Haute-Provence by the Back Door

Starting at a high pass on the Italian border, Judy Armstrong makes an epic journey by bike through the mountains and valleys dominating this remote area of France.

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On the Col de Larche, where Alpes-de-Haute-Provence meets Italy, prayer flags flutter around a small restaurant. Mountains rise on either side, clad in golden grass, patched with grey rock, soaring to razor ridges. Valleys sink between them, dropping to a silky ribbon of newborn river, the Ubayette. And, above it all, above this wild kingdom, is a sky as blue as an Alpine flower.

I breathe it in. It has taken a year of planning to get here, to begin a journey across Provence’s lofty heartland. But it started earlier, in 2012, when my husband and I visited Digne-les-Bains to discover the outdoor art of British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Walking through the black marl landscape around the town, we saw waymarks for a new mountain bike route. France is famed for its long-distance hiking trails but to create a version for bikes is an even more ambitious project.

Yet, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence has achieved it. The département is unique in hosting three grandes traversées VTT – Chemin du Soleil, TransVerdon and L’Alpes-Provence – and has become a mountain-bike mecca in the process. We have chosen the last route, 300 kilometres of off-road riding with nearly 10,000 metres of height gain over a leisurely fortnight. It is possible to complete the trip in a week, but the point, for us, was to travel slowly enough to feel the landscape’s heartbeat: to have time to stop, talk, admire, discover.

Our adventure is in two parts. From the Col de Larche in Haute-Ubaye, we will ride over mountains and through wooded valleys to Digne-les-Bains; the ‘Alps’ sector, with high-altitude forts and isolated hamlets. The next stage is ‘Provence’; where rolling hills shelter artisans and fortified villages, where olives and lavender rule the rocky land.

So, finally, our wheels turn. We slide off the