Comps-sur-Artuby is a small village on the Route Napoléon, the historic road tracing the emperor's 1815 return from Elba, and today one of the quieter approaches into the Gorges du Verdon from the east.
Riding out from the village, the road crosses the Pont de l'Artuby — a viewpoint some 150 metres above the gorge — before climbing the corniche toward Trigance and, further on, the Verdon's more famous belvederes. Inland, quieter roads climb through Brenon and Châteauvieux, over the Col de Siron (965m), to the medieval hilltop village of Bargème and on toward Mont Lachens, the Var department's highest point at 1,715 metres.
This stretch of the Haut-Var sees a fraction of the traffic that fills the main Verdon corniche roads in summer — largely thanks to the Canjuers military camp bordering the plateau, which keeps much of the surrounding country undeveloped and the roads correspondingly empty.
Comps-sur-Artuby carries no great racing history of its own, but as a base it offers something increasingly rare on the Côte d'Azur's cycling routes: genuine solitude, alongside some of Provence's most striking limestone scenery.
