The second day of the tour takes us from Aosta up the valley and over the Colle San Carlos and the little St. Bernard on part of the Route des Grandes Alpes, from Séez over the Cormet de Roselend to Beaufort and on a side path to Les Saisies. The impressive mountains, varied nature and winding pass roads often invite you to stop and linger for photos.

A route that is so varied, exciting and promising in terms of driving, simply deserves five stars.

Despite the many winding mountain roads, this tour is easy to master even for beginners with appropriately adapted driving skills.

As early risers, we enjoyed breakfast in one of the countless small cafés in the old town of Aosta and experienced how the picturesque town slowly comes to life. There was also enough time for a short shopping tour before we got on the motorbikes. First the path takes us along the main road up the valley towards the Mont Blanc Tunnel. We forego the motorway and enjoy the road along the villages.

The Rochefort chapel above Leverogne beamed at us from afar. We spontaneously turned off and took the short, steep hairpin bends up to the hamlet of Rochefort, where we were able to park the bikes in the parking lot on the left. We walked through narrow, ancient and beautifully renovated houses up to the little church. This short excursion is worth taking a different route on the way back to the parking lot. The picturesque facades seem to come from another century.

First you go down the same way as up, as the journey continues into a beautiful high valley, but it is a dead end. Be careful, after the last hairpin bend in the village you take a sharp left, almost a 180 degree turn. Back on the main road, Mont-Blanc with its wide, white back continues to wink at us in the distance. Of course we make a quick photo stop to capture this before we turn left in Morgex and climb the Colle San Carlos. What a fantastic pass. Diverse stretches of road, mostly in the forest, are simply wonderfully refreshing and soothing in summer. At the top of the pass there is a beautiful restaurant, La Genzianella, for a coffee.

Since we arrived there late at noon on a sunny Sunday, we had no chance of getting a seat in the restaurant. So it's worth getting there early enough or, even better, going on a weekday. The popularity of this pass is reflected in the number of cars parked left and right around the top of the pass for several kilometers. So we drove on without stopping for coffee.

After the valley floor of La Thuile, the famous tourist town is worth visiting, we go up the small St. Bernhard. The mountains tower impressively to the left and right of the road and halfway up the mountain restaurant Lo Riondet is ideal for a delicious snack. The view there is enormous and the food is fine and relatively cheap.

Strengthened, we climb the second half up to 2,188 meters above sea level and, once at the top, enjoy the view of the lake, mountains and valleys. The old customs station and tank defenses are also impressive, but they are all out of service. Curvy and with at least one stop to take photos of the wonderful view, the route descends to Séez. There we join the official route of the Routes des Grandes Alpes. If you have ten to fourteen days to spare, you should definitely go on this tour. I will soon put this tour online, but of course there are already some route suggestions for it.

We follow the official route over the Cormet de Roselend and down to Lac de Roselend. On the pass we fortify ourselves with drinks at a stand and enjoy the mountains before we head down to the azure lake. Curves between cow pastures lead us to this uniquely picturesque lake, where we stop at least once to take photos. Instead of the very beautiful, official route, which goes off to the right at the Col du Méraillet, we only turn right about two kilometers later and also cross the small, fine Col du Pré. The serpentines towards the end are a little more challenging, but with so little traffic and such a beautiful view, you're happy to take it on.

Today we just drive through Beaufort, a very picturesque medieval town, and a few kilometers later we ignore the signpost for the Tour des Grandes Alpes towards Saisies. We first drive to Villard-Sur-Doron and climb up the serpentines and curves of side roads to the Mont Bisanne reserve. Until a few years ago, you could still drive up to the mountain station by motorcycle, but unfortunately this access has now been banned. You then go down to Les Saisies via holiday colonies on the south side of the famous ski area. We highly recommend the Hotel Le Very, it offers cheap, rustic and comfortably furnished rooms and a good breakfast buffet. For dinner there are various restaurants in the area. If you're not Swiss like us and only consume fondue in Switzerland, we recommend a fondue evening.