Three mountain passes from Ste-Claire (Levens)

We had previously hiked to Colla Bassa (888 m) from Levens. While exploring new itineraries in this region, we wanted to try a loop starting from the hamlet of Ste-Claire (512 m) by the M19 road south of Levens. There’s a decent parking at Place Antoine Icart.

GR5 south of Ste-Claire

Mont Lion seen from trail

Above Plan de Couthon

The GR 5 trail runs next to Ste-Claire, and we followed it to the south, initially along a paved road, then a dirt track to Colla Partida (565 m; signpost #290). From the trail, we had nice views to the west, St-Blaise village etc. Colla Partida is a crossroads of several trails. We left the GR 5, forked left and descended rapidly to Plan de Couthon (427 m) by the M19 road. We crossed the road carefully to signpost #823 (title picture above) and began the long ascent to Colla Bassa. We hiked past signpost #815 then #219 (image below) after which we temporarily took the wrong trail in Ravin des Balmettes where the overgrown wet trail soon vanished and we returned to #219. The correct trail turned sharply left, uphill just 20 m after the signpost.

Left turn after 20m!

Spring signs

Colla Bassa 30min!

Levens and Mont Vial

Mont Cima

The rest of the ascent was uneventful. We took a well-deserved break at Colla Bassa (signpost #218). The main view was to the northeast with the still snow-capped Mercantour Range in the horizon. The best views to the coast and to the west were from the trail just before Colla Bassa.

We continued to the northwest. After a brief ascent and passing the crossroads to Col de Rosa, we descended to Col de Travail (760 m; signpost #281), a clearing with some ruined houses. From here, we first followed a dirt track about 200 m and at signpost #282 we forked left to Ste-Claire and descended rapidly back to the hamlet.