On the road

Albertville: Known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics, Albertville is a charming town at the foot of the Alps. It’s a great base for exploring the surrounding mountains and outdoor activities. Beyond skiing and hiking, enjoy the town’s vibrant culture with museums and events celebrating its Olympic legacy.

La Plagne: Know for its warm,  family-friendly spirit,  La Plagne offers a mix of varied  slopes and quaint alpine villages. The race brings a festive buzz, complemented by mountain activities and cozy moments in local chalets.  A perfect place to enjoy hearty  meals and stunning views of the mountains from a typical chalet.

SAVOIE (73)
Region: Auvergne Rhône-Alpes
Population: 442,500
Surface area: 6,028 km²
Number of cantons: 19
Number of communes: 273
Prefecture: Chambéry (59,629 inhabitants)
Sub-prefectures: Albertville, St-Jean-de-Maurienne
Specialities: Raclette, tartiflette, fondue, crozets (square-shaped pasta made from buckwheat flour), diots and pormoniers (pork sausages cooked in white wine), Saint-Genix (brioche with red pralines), Savoy cake, chocolate truffles, bugnes (doughnuts), génépi (mountain plant liqueur), Savoie cheeses (Tome des Bauges, Beaufort).
Sport: Chambéry Savoie Mont Blanc Handball (D1), AG2R-Citroën team (cycling), Aix Maurienne Savoie Basket (ProB).
Events: Alpine World Ski Championships Courchevel-Méribel 2023, Mountain Bike World Championships-Les Gets, August 2022. Albertville 1992 Winter Olympics, 2030 Winter Olympics.
Heritage: Hautecombe abbey (on the banks of Lake Bourget), Dukes of Savoy Castle (Chameéry), Esseillon barrier forts (Haute Maurienne), Vanoise national park, Bauges and Chartreuse regional nature parks, Lake Bourget, Lake Aiguebelette, etc.
Economy: tourism, agri-food, eco-industries, mountain industries, composite materials, information and communication technologies, metalworking, etc.
Culture: Musilac in Aix-les-Bains, Les Estivales en Savoie in Chambéry, Le Grand Bivouac in Albertville, Les Arcs European Film Festival, etc.
Websites and social networks: www.savoie.fr / https://www.facebook.com/SavoieDepartement / https://twitter.com/SavoieDepart / https://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com / https://www.facebook.com/savoiemontblancFR / @savoiemontblancFR / https://twitter.com/SavoieMontBlanc / @SavoieMontBlanc #SavoieMontBlanc / https://www.pinterest.fr/savoiemontblanc / https://www.instagram.com/savoiemontblanc / https://www.youtube.com/user/SavoieMontBlanc

Km 4.8: Marthod (Pop: 1,380)
Marthod is home to Aurélien Dunad-Pallaz, the 2017 European Ultra SkyMarathon runner-up and 2018 French trail champion. On 6 September 2020, he became world record holder for 24 hours of positive elevation gain. He completed the same climb 81 times in Marthod on the forest track between the Parking des Rafforts and the Alpettaz, near the Fort de la Batterie. On that day, he clocked up a total of 17,217 m of positive ascent.

Km 21.9: Gorges of the Arly
The Gorges of the Arly lie between the Aravis mountain range to the north-west and the Beaufortain massif to the south-east. Between Flumet and Ugine, they form the middle course of the Arly, which rises in Megève and flows into the Isère at Albertville. The particular geology of the rocks cut by the river leads to frequent landslides and rockfalls, forcing many closures of the departmental road 1,212 which runs alongside the river; the various development and repair works on this road have made it one of the most expensive in France.

Km 35.1: Les Saisies (Pop: 770 in Hauteluce)
The resort, often visited by the Tour, is a stronghold of cross-country and downhill skiing, and in particular of the Piccard dynasty, whose eldest son Franck was crowned Olympic Super-G champion in Calgary in 1988.   During the Second World War, the Col des Saisies became a refuge for the Resistance. On 1 August 1944, under the code name "Ebonite", the largest arms parachute drop ever made by the Allies for the Resistance took place: 78 flying fortresses from London dropped 899 containers of weapons for the 3,000 men of the Savoy maquis. Before the development of winter sports, the pass was essentially a vast alpine pasture. The area has been urbanised since the 1970s, culminating in the organisation of biathlon competitions during the Albertville Olympic Games. The Espace Diamant ski area is shared with the villages of Les Saisies, Crest-Voland, Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe and Flumet. The ski area has 192 km of downhill runs and 146 km of cross-country runs and is served by 85 ski lifts.

Col des Saisies (1,650 m)
Rated as a 1st category climb, Col des Saisies has been ridden fourteen times by Tour de France riders (excluding the climb up the Bisanne in 2016 on a slightly different route). The last time it was tackled, in 2023, Italian Giulio Ciccone was in the lead, as was Dutchman Wout Poels in 2021. A year earlier, it was Switzerland's Marc Hirschi who led the way at the top of a climb on the other side. In 2017, in the Tour de l'Avenir, Egan Bernal won a stage there and took the race leader's jersey.

Km 52.4: Beaufort (Pop: 2,060)
Overlooking the Doron, the remains of Beaufort castle, built on the ruins of a Roman villa around the 10th century, bear witness to Beaufort's long history. Owned by the Beauforts, the King of France and then the House of Savoy, it was occupied by various religious congregations from the 16th century to the present day.  Beaufort is also the birthplace of the family of writer Roger Frison-Roche, who discovered here the love of the mountains that inspired all his work before settling in Chamonix.      

Beaufort
Beaufort is also famous for having given its name to a cheese produced in the Beaufortain, Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys and part of the Val d'Arly. It has had AOC status since 1968. The prince of Gruyère cheeses, Beaufort is a smooth, ivory to pale yellow cheese with an extremely fine, fruity flavour. This pressed, cooked cheese is made from the milk of Tarine or Abondance cows that graze the mountain pastures in summer. More than 10 kilos of milk are needed to make one kilo of Beaufort. Once removed from the mould, the cheeses are matured in a cellar for 5 to 12 months, regularly turned over and rubbed with a mixture of salt and cheese rind called morge. Although the region's monks and farmers have always produced cheese, Beaufort appeared towards the end of the 17th century. Already highly regarded in the mid-eighteenth century, it found its identity around 1860 when two Beaufortin carpenters invented the wooden rings that surround it.

Km 78.5: Cormet de Roselend (1,968 m)
Linking the Beaufortain valley and the Mont Blanc massif, the Cormet de Roselend has been climbed 14 times by Tour de France riders since 1979. The last rider to lead on this summit was Giulio Ciccone in 2023. In 2019, it could not be reached due to a mudslide that forced the neutralisation of the stage before the scheduled finish in Tignes. 

Km 109.7: La Plagne Tarentaise (Pop: 3,660)
La Plagne Tarentaise was created in 2016 from the merger of the communes of Bellentre, La Côte-d'Aime, Mâcot-la-Plagne and Valezan. Like most of the towns in the Tarentaise region, it is notable for its Baroque religious heritage.  2009 slalom world silver-medallist Julien Lizeroux and 2009 world champion and Olympic half-pipe medallist Kevin Rolland are both members of the La Plagne ski club and have links with the commune.