I think the photographers exaggerate the angle when they take that picture, but it was around 8% in that area.

We actually arrived from Allemond, maybe 10-15 km east of Bourg d'Oisans (so on the road to Grenoble). That was an unbelievable ride: basically it's uphill for 50 km to the Col du Lautaret, something like 5-6% the whole time, and then there's the final 8 km portion at 8-9% to the very top of the pass, with crazy winds. A gust almost threw me off the road (and into the void! ) when I reach the top. Not exceptionally steep (unlike Ventoux), just really, really long.

Going up was tough but actually quite nice, except for the fact that my husband did not notice that it was uphill until we reached the Lautaret. (He's quite the climber.) He was wondering why I was so slow. At Lautaret we were thankful to find a giftshop selling fleece gloves because we were freezing already (and that's in late June, going up a big hill).

The descent was painful. I am quite the descender (unlike my husband, ironically, who finally agreed that it was steeper than he thought on the way there). But downhilling for almost 60 km on a serpentine road is very tiring, and we got even colder. My shoulders were mush when I arrived at our cabin... but my husband took another shot at the Alpe d'Huez before dinner.

It was a great vacation indeed. We like to climb so we did Ventoux, Galibier, Croix-de-Fer and Alpe d'Huez over the course of a week, and rode on beautiful roads of Provence too. Lucky people we are to be healthy enough to do that.