Mountain Biking in La Moulière

The Mountain Biking

La Moulière is a friendly little resort nestled in the Maritime Alps near Gréolières, just an hour inland from the coast. One rickety chairlift creaks its way up to 1600 m and stepping off the lift you’re treated to a spectacular 360 degree view over the Med and the Alps.

Open every day in July and August and weekends only during May, June and September, it’s one of the only lift serviced resorts in the south of France that’s open in May. There are 12 downhill tracks graded from green to black and the terrain is biased towards steep and technical rather than fast and flowing. Towards the bottom of the trails there are some fun wooden modules to keep things interesting, including some jumps, drop offs, berms and a wall ride.

Rare as rain is in this part of France, the trails are etched into the limestone plateau and the bare rocks are like ice in the wet. If you forgot to fit your High Rollers you can seek out more grip under the trees where there’s some nice jumps and a north-shore section.

Downhill and Enduro

There’s 290 m of vertical drop in La Moulière and the trails are on average about 1.5 km long.

The 2 green runs are super easy and suitable for first-timers and families. One’s called Easy Road and the other is Charbonnière. They’re both wide open with very few obstacles and the gradient is relatively gentle, so no overly fast sections.

The 2 blue tracks ramp up the fun a bit and include some nice berms, straightforward jumps and a north-shore section at the bottom. Don’t miss Wild Ride with its fast roller coaster feel.

The reds are squarely aimed at intermediate riders and the singletrack winds down some steeper gradient and is peppered with some nice jumps, drops and berms.

The black runs shoot you straight down the mountain and you’ve gotta be on it to stay on it! Rocky, technical singletrack pinballs you down between boulders and over rock gardens. Further down, under the trees, the tracks get crazy steep and technical and your arms will be pumping and your calves burning at the bottom.

Cross-Country

La Molière has 2 waymarked cross-country trails. The first is a 10 km loop that you can access from the top of the chairlift. You skirt along the top of the Audibergue mountains at 1600 m where you’ll be treated to a spectacular view over the Côte d’Azur. On a clear day, you can even see Corsica. You then drop down into Audibergue and cut back through the forest to the Moulière chairlift.

The second XC trail pretty much just follows the La Moulière chairlift on a fire road. It can be used to pedal up to the start of the downhill tracks or as a quick and super easy descent from the top of the lift.