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.
670 km from Anse to Saint-Jean-de-Niost, about 10 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Oingt golden village, Beaujeu vineyard roads, Mâcon river and in Saint-Jean-de-Niost. The climbs: in Roche-la-Molière, near La Côte-Saint-André and Scenic stretch in Saint-Jean-de-Bournay. It keeps to quiet secondary roads.
Anse is a small town of just over five thousand people on the Saône, at the point where the little river Azergues joins it, and it is the gateway to the Pierres Dorées, the Golden Stone country of the southern Beaujolais. The villages of this district are built of a soft, honey-coloured limestone that glows in the evening light, and the vineyards that cover the hills produce the lighter Beaujolais wines. As a fuel gate and start and finish of the ride, Anse is a convenient place, with fuel stations, a supermarket, bakeries and cafés, and it is easy to reach from Lyon, about twenty-five kilometres to the south.
Read the complete Anse fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Anse is where the day begins. Next is Oingt golden village.
Oingt looks as though someone has poured honey over a hill. The village stands at the heart of the Pierres Dorées, the Golden Stones country of southern Beaujolais, and its houses are built of a limestone coloured by iron into every shade from butter to rust. Steep cobbled lanes wind up toward a medieval tower and a church, and the whole place is on the list of France's most beautiful villages, a title that here feels earned rather than marketed.
Read the complete Oingt golden village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oingt golden village comes up about 13 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beaujeu vineyard roads.
Beaujeu gave its name to the whole region, and then quietly let the more famous towns take the credit. The lords of Beaujeu were powerful in the Middle Ages, and their lands, the Beaujolais, were named after the town, which was the capital until the sixteenth century. Today it is a calm, small place of about two thousand people, with a main street of old houses, a Romanesque-Gothic church, a handful of cafes and a sleepy confidence that comes from knowing its own worth.
Read the complete Beaujeu vineyard roads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Beaujeu vineyard roads. Next is Mâcon river food.
Mâcon turns its face to the Saône, and the river is the reason to stop. The town stretches along the west bank of the slow, wide river, with quays lined with plane trees, a long stone bridge to the village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Saône on the opposite bank, and terraces where you can eat and watch the barges. It is a town of about thirty-five thousand people, the capital of the Mâconnais wine country, and it has a pleasant, easy-going air that suits a food stop.
Read the complete Mâcon river food write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 100 km into the recorded legs. Next is Back to Anse.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Anse fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Anse. That is the ride. Next is Pilat Ridge and Rhône View.
Pilat Ridge and Rhône View is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return.
You are in the Mâconnais, the southern end of Burgundy, where chardonnay vines cover the limestone hills and the villages are built of honey-coloured stone. Hurigny, La Roche-Vineuse and Sancé are small places within a few kilometres of each other, each with a church and a bakery, and Charnay-lès-Mâcon, with about seven thousand people, offers fuel and a supermarket. Mâcon itself lies a short way to the east on the Saône. The label calls this a swim stop, which is optimistic, but the countryside is lovely for a quiet pause.
Read the complete Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 309 km into the recorded legs you reach Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return. Next is Food stop near Chandon.
Chandon is a small village in the far north of the Loire department, close to the borders of Burgundy and the Rhône, in a landscape of green pastures, hedges and gentle hills. The white Charolais cattle grazing in the fields tell you that you are on the edge of the Brionnais, and the farms, churches and villages are built of warm, honey-coloured stone.
Read the complete Food stop near Chandon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 388 km into the recorded legs. Next is Photo stop in Roche-la-Molière.
Coal made Roche-la-Molière. The town sits on the western edge of the Saint-Étienne basin, and for generations its hillsides were dotted with pit heads, slag heaps and miners' terraces. The mines are long closed, the spoil tips have grassed over, and today it is a quiet residential town of around ten thousand people with a château on its hill and good views back towards the city and the dark ridge of the Pilat beyond.
Read the complete Photo stop in Roche-la-Molière write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section. Next is Pilat Ridge and Rhône View checkpoint 8.
Brignais is where the ride hands you back to Lyon. It sits in the valley of the Garon on the south-western edge of the city, a busy town of shops, light industry and housing estates, with the Monts du Lyonnais rising gently behind it and the Pilat a blue shadow further south. After a day on the ridges it is an unglamorous but very practical finish.
Read the complete Brignais write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilat Ridge and Rhône View checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is High point near La Côte-Saint-André.
Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-Saint-André in 1803, and the town has never let anyone forget it. His family home is now a museum, and every summer a festival in his name fills the courtyard of the château with orchestras. It is a fine reason to linger, but the town has other charms too: a huge medieval covered market hall with a timber roof, steep lanes, and the distillery of Cherry Rocher, which has been making liqueurs here since the early eighteenth century.
Read the complete High point near La Côte-Saint-André write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
High point near La Côte-Saint-André is the summit of this stretch. Next is Scenic stretch in Saint-Jean-de-Bournay.
There is a particular kind of French country town that exists mainly to serve the farms around it, and Saint-Jean-de-Bournay is a good example: a square with plane trees, a church, a café where the same men have been drinking their morning coffee for decades, a pharmacy, a bakery and a weekly market. It sits in a shallow valley in the hills of the Bas-Dauphiné, about twenty-five kilometres east of Vienne, and it does not try to be anything else.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Saint-Jean-de-Bournay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Back to Pilat Ridge.
The Rhône is the main character here. Pilat, the ridge in the ride's name, is on the other side of Lyon altogether, so this is an end of day well away from the hills.
Read the complete Pilat Ridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Pilat Ridge closes the day.
Anse fuel gate → Oingt golden village is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oingt golden village → Beaujeu vineyard roads is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beaujeu vineyard roads → Mâcon river food is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mâcon river food → Back to Anse is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Anse → Fuel stop in Saint-Jean-de-Niost is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop in Saint-Jean-de-Niost → Near Hurigny, on the way back is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Chandon → Photo stop in Roche-la-Molière is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop in Roche-la-Molière → Brignais is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near La Côte-Saint-André → Scenic stretch in Saint-Jean-de-Bournay is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch in Saint-Jean-de-Bournay → Back to Pilat Ridge is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.