CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
390 km from Toulouse to Toulouse, about 7 h of riding. The stops in between: Episcopal City of Albi, Châteaux de Lastours, Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne and back through Châteaux de Lastours. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Toulouse has two characters, and they sit on the same streets. One is the pink city, built from handmade brick that glows rose and orange in evening light, with a square, a basilica and a long river of old merchants' houses. The other is the aerospace city, home to Airbus and a museum of flight, whose engineers have shaped the modern aviation of Europe. The two live side by side, and they give the city a pleasing mix of old stone and ambitious young people.
Read the complete Toulouse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Toulouse is where the day begins. Next is Episcopal City of Albi.
Albi is built of brick, which is unusual in the south of France, and the colour changes through the day, from salmon in the morning to a deep red at dusk. The great cathedral of Sainte-Cécile dominates the old town, and from a distance it looks more like a fortress than a church, with a massive tower and walls that have no windows at the bottom. It was begun in the late thirteenth century, soon after the crusade against the Cathars had been won, and its builders wanted the faithful, and the heretics, to see where power lay. Inside, the painted vault and a huge fresco of the Last Judgement are astonishing. The whole episcopal city, with the old bridge and the bishop's palace, was listed by UNESCO in 2010.
Read the complete Episcopal City of Albi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Episcopal City of Albi comes up 51 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Episcopal City of Albi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
102 km in you reach Episcopal City of Albi. Next is Châteaux de Lastours.
Four castles perch on a narrow rock ridge above the village of Lastours, in the Montagne Noire north of Carcassonne, and they look so improbable from the viewpoint across the valley that most people stop talking when they see them. The two streams, the Orbiel and the Grésilhou, wrap around the ridge, and the castles, Cabaret, Tour Régine, Surdespine and Quertinheux, stand along its length like beads on a string.
Read the complete Châteaux de Lastours write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Châteaux de Lastours, about halfway. Next is Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne.
Carcassonne is the fortress that every child draws when asked for a castle: a double ring of walls with about fifty towers, pointed slate roofs, a drawbridge and a keep, rising from a hilltop above the river Aude. The medieval city, known as La Cité, is the largest walled town in Europe still standing, and much of what you see was heavily restored in the nineteenth century by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, whose steep roofs on the towers are more northern French than local. The result is spectacular if debatable, and UNESCO listed the site in 1997.
Read the complete Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne sits at 203 km, about halfway. Next is back through Châteaux de Lastours.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Châteaux de Lastours write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Châteaux de Lastours comes up 254 km in. Next is back through Episcopal City of Albi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Episcopal City of Albi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
305 km in you reach back through Episcopal City of Albi. Next is back through Episcopal City of Albi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Episcopal City of Albi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Episcopal City of Albi, late in the day. Next is Toulouse.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Toulouse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 390 km.
Toulouse → Episcopal City of Albi is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Episcopal City of Albi → Châteaux de Lastours is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Châteaux de Lastours → Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne → back through Châteaux de Lastours is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Châteaux de Lastours → back through Episcopal City of Albi is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Episcopal City of Albi → Toulouse is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.