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D19 Levens(sh)
This route leaves the Vesubie Gorge about 10km before it
merges into the busy, unpleasant-to-cycle Valley of the
Vars. This gentle ridge route descending into Nice is a
pleasant alternative to the busy Vars valley, but not nearly
as paradisical as the passes east of here.
From North: D19 leaves the Vesubie Gorge in St Jean la
Riviere and climbs up the west side of the gorge, in much the
same manner that Col de la Porte
does a few km upstream. After the settlement of Duranus the
climb takes a break. Seeing the road ahead traversing a shelf on
a massive opposing limestone cliff was by far the most
interesting part of the route for me. But actually the
reciprocal view, looking back to Duranus from the same road
shelf is also a spectacular sight. After this the road keeps on
climbing fairly gently and tops out on heavily populated plateau
a little past the town of Levens. From South. A little past the highest point on this
shoulder summit route is a large sports field (soccer field I
suppose) with several affordable looking restaurants and hotels.
I came down this route on a Sunday afternoon and the traffic was
very heavy, nothing like all those enchanted passes to the east
of here. It is probably not quite as bad during other times of
the week. But there is constant stream of houses lining the
road, really an outgrowth of Nice all the way up to
Tourrette-Levens. The road finally descends at a uniform gentle
grade, so that no breaking is required onto the socialized
housing towers of St-Andre de la Roche - next stop is Nice.
A Dayrides. with this point as intermediate summit is on the page Col de la Porte The first pass with different start and end points on this Extended Tour is: Col de Vence back to Cycling Passes in Europe 
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Approaches
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