The 1566-m high Col du Télégraphe gives access to an area of mountains known as Les Cerces, and links Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, to the north, to Valloire, to the south. It is also the gateway to the northern slopes of the Col du Galibier.

The pass was named after the Chappe telegraph tower, whose articulated-arms have risen above the cliffs since 1807. The neighbouring Télégraphe Fort occupies a superbly strategic position overlooking the Maurienne Valley.

At the beginning of the 19^th-century, Napoleon 1^st ordered the construction of a chain of 116 telegraph stations to connect Paris to Turin. Two were built on the Mont-Cenis Plateau, one on the crest of the Pas du Paradis, just above the small Saint-Nicolas dam on the Italian side of the plateau, the other at the Chalets de la Buffat, to the west of the Mont-Cenis pass. The chain then extended from Lanslebourg (two stations) to Termignon, Sardières, Aussois, Saint-André, Orelle, Valloire (Col du Télégraphe), Mont-Denis, Montvernier, Montgellafrey, Saint-Léger, Le Pontet, Champ-Laurent, La Thuile, Saint-Sulpice, and Méribel, etc. In general, the stations were 10 to 20 kilometres apart. In 1888, a fort was built next to the Valloire telegraph tower, and named the Fort du Télégraphe.

In 1874, major road works, including the digging of a 120-m long tunnel near the Col du Télégraphe, were begun in order to widen the road from Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to Briançon, via Valloire and the Col du Galibier. The last sections of the road over the Col du Galibier, including the tunnel, were built in 1892, and the military camp at Les Rochilles was finished in 1905. Valloire invested much more than Saint-Martin-d'Arc and Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne in the road to Briançon, as the latter two towns didn’t see much value in it. Nevertheless, the new road led to a substantial increase in trade between the Briançon and Maurienne Valleys.

The Col du Télégraphe has contributed to the Tour de France’s “King of the Mountains” classification 27 times, including 19 times since 1947. However, it has featured in the Tour on several other occasions, when it has been climbed from Valloire, an ascent that is not deemed difficult enough to count towards the polka-dot jersey. (Source: Wikipedia)