The road is surrounded by exceptional panoramas and natural habitats, all part of the national park that is listed as World Heritage for its immense value. The road includes two Creole villages – historical witnesses of the highlands: La Plaine-des-Palmistes and Bourg-Murat. The plains area, reaching 1,630 metres, is often foggy, and echoes alpine pastures, with a temperate climate where the temperatures drops below zero during austral winter and different vegetation with broom-covered moors, arums, tree ferns and hortensias.
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this is the only road to cross the island from the southwest to the east between the cirques and the volcano.
From the south, Route des Plaines connects Saint-Pierre and Saint-Benoît with 58 kilometres through the highlands via Col de Bellevue.
From the east, between Saint-Benoît and Saint-Pierre, the road passes through fields of sugar cane, “pandanais” and mountain forests to reach completely bare high plains, surrounded by several volcanic pitons. From there, the road heads to the drier southwest coast.
Via this road, vehicles can reach the summit of Piton de la Fournaise volcano and Bébour Bélouve forest massif.
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