Jausiers sits in the Ubaye valley at the foot of the Col de la Bonette, and from here the road climbs 24 kilometres at an average of 6.7% to the pass itself, then loops on to the Cime de la Bonette at 2,802 metres — the highest paved through-road in France and among the highest in Europe.
The climb has appeared in the Tour de France only a handful of times, which only adds to its mystique.
In 2008, South African John-Lee Augustyn crested the summit first on Stage 16 before crashing spectacularly on the descent, handing the stage to Cyril Dessel; the climb returned in 2024 on Stage 19 from Embrun to Isola 2000, its fifth Tour appearance since 1962.
The gradient is remarkably even for a climb of this scale — mostly 7 to 9%, with only the final kilometre before the Cime kicking up past 10% — passing through pine forest, high pastures grazed by marmots, and finally a near-lunar landscape of bare rock near the summit. From Jausiers, the descent continues south to Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée, making the Bonette a natural link between the Ubaye and Tinée valleys for riders stringing together a longer traverse of the southern Alps.
