Faucille (Col de la)

This road pass culminating at 1323m connects the Pays de Gex, gateway to Switzerland, and the French Jura. A little below, the view of Mont Blanc is superb on a clear day. The top of the pass is a popular destination for hikers in summer and skiers in winter.

We made a brief stop here during our 2022 "Switzerland Tour outside Switzerland" as this pass connects the Genevois region (or "Large Geneva") with the bucolic valleys of the Jura chain on the French side.

The road over the pass is easy and well maintained, the scenery is superb and there is a restaurant at the top.

The big summer attraction is a 955m rail sledging course, which can be done alone or in pairs, with 5 hairpins, a twist and a gradient of up to 37%.

A tourist office is located in the former customs house. A customs house so far from the border? From 1815 to Switzerland's entry into the Schengen area in 2008, Pays de Gex was a free zone that traded freely with Switzerland, so there was a customs office at the top of the pass!

This is not the only historical feature of the pass, which at the beginning of the 19th century was still the crossing point for the stagecoach from Paris to Geneva.

A Geneva banker had a telescope aimed at the Faucille Pass. He had made an agreement with the coach driver, who would add a white cloth to his whip if the price of a stock had risen in Paris.

He would then hurry to buy some, which he would then resell to the other Geneva bankers, who had only learned of the news once the coach had arrived...