Méribel Mottaret from Moutiers

The climb was made very unpleasant by the traffic (15 July). Note the lack of shade throughout the ascent. The scenery becomes pleasant from Les Allues onwards. The first part is steep, then becomes gentler with a few intermittent firecrackers. The main attraction on the bike is access to the Col de la Loze, which makes the whole climb worthwhile. If the aim is to climb back up to Mottaret, as I did, it becomes much less interesting.

Last and highest ski village, somewhat sidetracked as an end point by the created Col de la Loze, nevertheless cycled up in late August 2024.
Once the already busy valley road from Moutiers turns right, it immediately goes briskly up the forested valley side via hairpin bends, followed by winding route between villages where it usually flattens out for a while. There are beautiful viewpoints along the way. You eventually reach the big well-known Méribel, which is mainly a construction site in summer, which explains the unpleasantly heavy freight traffic along the way.
Unlike Alpe d'Huez, flats hotels and shops here do have a similar building style!
As I decided not to cycle straight to the "slaughter of the Loze", I left the village at the back via a tunnel to climb up the last 4 km to the end of the valley. A few hairpin turns in a mountain landscape with many ski lifts but with snow-covered peaks and with hardly any traffic.
End point was ski village in summer mode. Few people, little activity and many closed catering establishments.

Beware especially before the descent:
as everywhere in the region, there are speed bumps at the start and end of each village.
Weekend days there is less construction activity so also less heavy traffic.

Nice (warming up) interlude if you don't want to climb the Col de la Loze in one go .