Route Napoleon

[zxy]

I tend to reminisce around this time of year of a Ski trip we took in Europe. After skiing in Austria and Chamonix the weather deteriorated and we started thinking about the Med and sunshine. So we headed south to Grenoble and on to the Cote d Azur via the "Route Napoleon". Later we learned that this is quite a popular scenic and historic drive. The E89 would have been the ideal vehicle. It's interior ski rack, all weather hardtop, steerable interactive headlights, headlight washers and rain sensing wipers would have all been very useful as the road ascended through snow, slush, rain, fog and then descended down through the Maritime Alps into the sunny Riviera and on to Monaco with the top down. We ended up at Lake Como and Lake Lugano in Italy and drove over Alpine passes into Switzerland. I know that there are almost endless road trips like this and I am wondering if Forum members here also enjoy similar European trips from the U.K. that they might share.

 

[Marcoose]

That's my old route to go back home. I didn't have no Zed then, just a tired FIAT. Fun nevertheless. And beautiful !

 

[Smartbear]

I ventured down to Monaco in my e89, it was a great experience 8)

Rob

 

[patje007]

we did the "route Napoleon" in 2017, but not with a Z4, it was the TT

 

[mcbutler]

Is anyone else thinking that a forum 'run' to the cote d'azur might be a thing?

 

[DMike]

Great shots Smartbear, thanks for sharing. We’ve done Cote d’Azur a few times with a rental car but this route is something I’ve dreamed to do with the zed some day. Coming from Scandinavia that would be a longish trip and require a lot of planning, but some day…

 

[PhilA52]

Hi Mark a group of petrol heads are doing that same trip next year (June) all well organised and a great bunch of people with a mixture of old and new cars
I went on this years trip (8days) down to Italy
I believe a place is still vacant if you are interested,drop me a PM and I can put you I contact with the organiser I am also in Plymouth driving an Alpina (good weather only) and a M2 Competition as my daily

Phil

 

[tiglon]

Took my first e89 down that way back in 2018, through France, along the south Coast from Nice through Monaco and on to Venice, then back up via the Italian Lakes and Switzerland.

Would recommend!

 

[zxy]

Those are some very nice shots of E89s amidst the scenery. Google exploring reveals a number of excursions, some with exotic rental cars. There are also some good (and bad) You tube videos. The most memorable parts for us were exploring Monaco, gambling a bit at the Casino with sheiks and other interesting characters, seeing the Ferrari factory, having pizza in Milan, and well every part of the route all the way back up to Switzerland was fun. The main event in winter was however the teleferique up Mt Blanc, from Chamonix and the epic 12k run down the glacier. In summer it would still be worth doing the amazing teleferique. Lots of You Tubes about that as well. Thanx for the photos.