Why This Road Shouldn’t Exist | Exploring the Vercors by Motorcycle

Why This Road Shouldn’t Exist | Exploring the Vercors by Motorcycle

What do you do when a mountain stands in the way?

You build a road through it. 🏍️🇫🇷

After the spectacular cliffs of Combe Laval — and one rather questionable detour along the way — our journey through the Vercors continues into another extraordinary piece of French road-building history:

Gorges de la Bourne.

#GorgesDeLaBourne #BMWK1600GTL #Vercors

Running through a dramatic limestone gorge between the high Vercors plateau and Pont-en-Royans, this is a road that feels as though it shouldn’t really exist.

Cliffs rise above you.

The Bourne river runs below.

The road disappears beneath enormous rock overhangs and through tunnels carved directly into the limestone.

And somehow, more than 150 years ago, people decided this was exactly where a road needed to go.

Construction began in 1861.

For the next eleven years, workers carved, blasted and built their way through terrain that had spent millions of years making itself extremely inconvenient for road construction.

Finally, in 1872, the route opened.

Today, we can simply ride through it.

And perhaps that’s the most remarkable part.

We barely think about the roads beneath our wheels until we find ourselves somewhere like this — looking at tunnels cut through solid rock and sections of road clinging to the side of a gorge — and begin wondering about the people who actually built them.

For the communities of the Vercors, roads like this weren’t created for motorcycles, tourism or spectacular YouTube footage.

They connected isolated communities.
They helped move people, timber and goods.
They opened the mountains to the world beyond them.

More than a century later, they also happen to provide a rather spectacular playground for a BMW K1600 GTL.

And those tunnels…

Well.

I’m fairly certain the engineers who spent eleven years carving them through the mountains didn’t have the sound of a 1,649cc BMW six-cylinder engine in mind.

But it would be extremely disrespectful not to test the acoustics.

Repeatedly. 😄🎧

🏍️ Motorcycle: BMW K1600 GTL
🇫🇷 Location: Vercors, France
🏔️ Road: Gorges de la Bourne
📍 Route: Vercors → Gorges de la Bourne → Pont-en-Royans area
🎥 Filmed with: GoPro Hero 12 & Insta360 cameras

Gorges de la Bourne is also part of a much larger landscape shaped by water.

The limestone of the Vercors hides caves, underground rivers and springs, including the remarkable cave systems around Choranche. Above ground, the Bourne continues through the gorge toward places such as Pont-en-Royans, famous for its colourful houses seemingly suspended above the river.

But once again, this journey reminded me that the famous names on the map are only part of the experience.

Between them are tiny villages.

Old roads.
Rivers.
Tunnels.

Places we never planned to stop.

And occasionally a road that makes you wonder how anyone ever managed to build it in the first place.

Over the last couple of days, the Vercors had given us almost everything I love about travelling by motorcycle.

Famous roads.
Unknown roads.
Tiny villages.
Mountains.
Rivers.
History.
And plenty of six-cylinder noise echoing through tunnels.

If you enjoy BMW K1600 GTL touring, motorcycle travel, scenic roads in France, Vercors, Alpine motorcycle routes and long-form motorcycle adventures, subscribe and come along for the rest of our European journey.

Because there are still plenty of roads ahead.

And if there’s another tunnel…

You already know what’s going to happen. 😄

Ride. Record. Repeat.

#GorgesDeLaBourne #BMWK1600GTL #Vercors #MotorcycleTouring #BMWMotorrad #FranceByMotorcycle #MotorcycleTravel #ScenicRoads #MotorcycleAdventure #k1600gtl

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