CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
203 km from Genève to Genève, about 3 h 41 of riding. On the way it passes Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman, Le Crêt de Chatillon, Secteur des Mongets and Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into France - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 19 km this is Jura Crest Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Geneva sits at the south-western tip of Lake Geneva, which locals call Lac Léman, and on a clear day the white shoulder of Mont Blanc rises over the far shore, more than sixty kilometres away. The Rhône leaves the lake here, fast and blue-green, and the city spreads along both banks. The most famous thing is the Jet d'Eau, a fountain that throws a plume of water about a hundred and forty metres into the air from the lake, visible from far across the water.
Read the complete Geneva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Geneva is where the day begins. Next is Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman.
On the French shore of Lake Geneva, just across the border from Switzerland, the village of Chens-sur-Léman sits among fields and woods above the water. Along its shoreline, at places such as Tougues and Les Grèves, the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings lie in the shallow water, and they are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage site. On calm days, when the water is clear and low, it is sometimes possible to see the stumps of ancient wooden piles sticking out of the lakebed, a quiet reminder of the people who lived here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Le Crêt de Chatillon.
The Crêt de Châtillon is the summit of the Semnoz, the long wooded mountain that rises above the western shore of Lake Annecy, and from the top, at around 1,700 metres, the view on a clear day is one of the finest in the French Alps: the whole lake below, the Bauges and the Aravis around, and, to the east, Mont Blanc in all its glory. Sites with names like Châtillon and Les Mongets along this shore preserve the remains of villages built on the edge of the lake thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Le Crêt de Chatillon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Le Crêt de Chatillon. Next is Secteur des Mongets.
Sevrier, on the western shore of Lake Annecy, is home to an unusual industry: bells. The Paccard foundry, which has been casting bells since the late eighteenth century and moved to Sevrier in the 1980s, has made bells for churches and carillons all over the world, and its museum explains how they are designed, cast and tuned. It is a curious contrast to the quiet lakeshore just below the village, where the Secteur des Mongets marks the remains of a prehistoric village built on the edge of the lake, now under water. It is one of the sites included in the World Heritage listing of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, and divers have found wooden piles, pottery and tools in the lake bed.
Read the complete Secteur des Mongets write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Secteur des Mongets, about halfway. Next is Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz.
Lake Annecy is often called the cleanest lake in Europe, and on a summer day its water is such a startling shade of turquoise that it looks retouched. The lake fills a long valley among the limestone mountains of Haute-Savoie, with the town of Annecy at its northern end, and its western shore, around Saint-Jorioz, is a flat area of reeds and meadows, the Marais de Saint-Jorioz, where prehistoric people built villages on piles. The remains are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011, and lie hidden under the water and the marshes.
Read the complete Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz sits at 97 km, about halfway. Next is back through Secteur des Mongets.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Secteur des Mongets write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Secteur des Mongets comes up about 107 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Le Crêt de Chatillon.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Le Crêt de Chatillon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Le Crêt de Chatillon. Next is back through Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman, late in the day. Next is Geneva.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Geneva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 203 km.
Geneva → Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman → Le Crêt de Chatillon is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Secteur des Mongets → Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz is 5 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz → back through Secteur des Mongets is 5 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Le Crêt de Chatillon → back through Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman → Geneva is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.