Photo : Nouill / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Col du Lautaret
The Col du Lautaret peaks at 2,057 metres' altitude in the Hautes-Alpes and links the Oisans, in the Romanche valley, to the Briançonnais, in the Guisane valley. It is the second-highest French pass open to motor traffic in winter. A Roman road crossed it between Grenoble and Briançon, then a royal hospice was built there to shelter travellers, before becoming a hotel at the end of the nineteenth century. Regular snow clearing, made official in 1957, allowed year-round opening.
The Lautaret alpine botanical garden, attached to the Joseph Fourier Alpine station of the Université Grenoble Alpes and the CNRS, brings together more than 2,000 species of mountain plants. Botanists have frequented the place since the eighteenth century. The pass also marks the start of the Col du Galibier road, which climbs towards the Maurienne, and the Tour de France has crossed it several times. A chapel, Notre-Dame-des-Fusillés, recalls the execution of 17 hostages in August 1944.
