Why this ride
Out of Saint-Savin, one way: 169 km, roughly 2 h 37 in the saddle.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ardèche Gorge Long Day · part 1
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 169 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 37
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fuel stop near Saint-Savin
Saint-Savin is a village in the hills just north of Bourgoin-Jallieu, in the part of Nord-Isère where the land starts to fold up towards the Isle Crémieu and the Rhône. It is quiet, green country: hedges and walnut trees, ponds in the hollows, stone farmhouses, and narrow roads that seem to have been laid down by following the cows.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Saint-Savin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ardèche Gorge Long Day is where the day begins. Next is Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return.
2. Near Varennes-Saint-Sauveur, on the way back
The Bresse is flat, green and fiercely proud of its chickens. This stop lies deep in it, between Varennes-Saint-Sauveur and Saint-Trivier-de-Courtes, close to the line where Saône-et-Loire meets the Ain. The landscape is a quilt of small fields, hedges, damp meadows and woods, crossed by slow rivers that drain north towards the Seille and the Saône.
Read the complete Near Varennes-Saint-Sauveur, on the way back write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return comes up about 116 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop near Cluny.
3. Food stop near Cluny
For about two centuries, the largest church in Christendom stood in this small Burgundian town. The abbey of Cluny, founded in 910, grew into the head of a vast network of monasteries across Europe, and its third church, begun at the end of the eleventh century, was longer than any other until St Peter's in Rome was rebuilt. Popes came from its ranks, kings sought its blessing. Then came the Revolution: the abbey was dissolved, sold, and used for decades as a stone quarry. What remains is a fragment, a single soaring arm of the transept with its octagonal bell tower, and the empty space around it is almost more eloquent than the building would have been.
Read the complete Cluny write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 169 km.
Leg by leg
Fuel stop near Saint-Savin to Near Varennes-Saint-Sauveur, on the way back
Fuel stop near Saint-Savin → Near Varennes-Saint-Sauveur, on the way back is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Lac du Bourget Balcony Ride · part 2 · 113 km
- Chartreuse Forest Passes · part 2 · 281 km
- Chartreuse Forest Passes · part 3 · 196 km
- Isère Valley and Belledonne · part 1 · 225 km