Heading south in france, must see roads / places?

My upcoming trip to France to september is getting closer, what roads and or places would people consider must see / ride ?
Please feel free to give me all your suggestions, me and danf123 are going for 10 days and want to limit the mileage to around 2500 door to door.

After seeing dmc's pics of Annecy, that's immediately on the list lol.

[Luckypants]

Well I always say if you just want to get into the Alps, use the autoroute to head south. Get off at Dole, head towards Poligny and take the N5 to Nyon, it gets you on the twisty stuff early. (advice given to me a few years back and is very sound) Depending on where you stop for the first night, you can carry on to Annecy from Nyon easily. This is a view that greets you on the N5...



That is Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc in the far distance. Geneva is just off to the right.

Get yourselves up the Col de La Forclaz when you are in Annecy, on the D42 then drop back down to pick up the lake road and onto the D10 then D41 to do a loop around Lake Annecy in the hills. Good warmup for the big passes in my opinion.

Cheers Mike, this is where we're planning to stop the first night or somewhere around this area.
As Dan is riding down from his house up north on the 1st day, its a lot of miles for him if we aim any further.

[Luckypants]

Yeah fair play it's a long way. You could do Annecy from St. Quentin in one hit, but it is still a fair step. Of course you can spend a couple of days doing it along N and D roads which is more fun. But I highly recommend the N5 as a road to get towards Annecy.

I agree mike, we wanna use back roads as much as possible, only using mways as a last resort or a way to make up time.

I want to keep the miles down to about 200 a day unless on fast routes.

[STRAMASHER]

(Thats the money shot there LP.)

Where are you thinking of going? Alps&Med?

Col de Galibier:



Gorge du Verdon: (You'll take this very same pic )

[timwilky]

I agree get into the hills

either south through the alps down to Monaco but I also like it to the east in the Belfort, Mullhouse, Basle area

[Fluffer]

Have set up the same trip for July 1st for a week so i'll be taking all the things above on board. If you happened to get a full route itinerary planned and on here before then specialone i could compare it to my own meticulously planned route. No of course i'm not trying to get you to do all the hard work for me :-p

Why don't you delay until 1st September and come with us ?

[Fluffer]

All booked and sorted for this one now but if leave / money / the lady all fall in to place i may well take you up on your offer! I may hate France by that point though if things fall to bits on the first one