# Route Napoléon
N85 / D6085 · Grasse to Digne and Grenoble. France (Europe).
Source: https://lotustrails.com/trails/route-napoleon/

- Length: 325 km (202 miles)
- High point: 1,176 m (3,858 ft)
- Driving time: A full day, or 2 hours for the best section
- Season: Year-round
- Toll: Free
- Coordinates: 43.847, 6.513
- Character: Fast sweepers, Touring, Smooth surface

The Route Napoléon follows the path Napoleon took in 1815 from his landing at Golfe-Juan to Grenoble, about 325 km in all. For driving, the part that matters is the 60-odd kilometres from Grasse to Castellane and on towards Digne-les-Bains: wide, well-surfaced, well-sighted and built from one long sequence of third- and fourth-gear curves.

## The drive
Leave Grasse early and the road climbs quickly onto limestone plateau, over the Col de Valferrière (1,169 m) and the Pas de la Faye, with the coast visible behind. The bends are open enough to see through, and the road is wide enough to have a proper centre line all the way.

Castellane is the natural stop, and the turn-off for the Gorges du Verdon. North of it the road passes through the Clue de Taulanne, a narrow rock gap, and over the Col des Lèques before dropping to Barrême and Digne.

## In your Lotus
Where the Turini is a second-gear road, the Napoléon is where a Lotus shows how little speed it loses in a corner. It suits the longer-legged cars too: an Exige V6, Evora or Emira can use its torque here in a way it cannot on a hairpin pass. It also makes the best possible route home from a Riviera trip.

## Watch out for
- It is a main road, heavily used by motorcyclists at weekends and well policed.
- Villages have fixed speed cameras at the entry signs.
- Summer afternoons bring caravans; mornings are much clearer.