Ardèche Gorge Long Day · part 3

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Brignais

   In 1362, on the slopes above Brignais, a royal army sent to clear out bands of unemployed mercenaries, the Tard-Venus, who were ravaging the Lyon area during a lull in the Hundred Years' War, was soundly defeated by them. It was an embarrassing moment for the French crown, and the mercenaries went on plundering the region for some time afterwards. Today there is little trace of the battle, and Brignais is a busy town of some twelve thousand people on the south-western edge of Lyon, in the valley of the Garon.

   Read the complete Brignais 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 checkpoint 8 is where the day begins. Next is Scenic stretch near Le Péage-de-Roussillon.

2. 2. Scenic stretch near Le Péage-de-Roussillon

   The Rhône corridor south of Vienne is one of the busiest transport arteries in Europe, with the river, the A7 motorway, the railway and the N7 all squeezed into the valley, and Le Péage-de-Roussillon sits right in the middle of it. The town grew up as a toll station on the old road, hence the name, and in the twentieth century it became home to a large chemical platform whose chimneys and pipework still dominate the riverbank.

   Read the complete Scenic stretch near Le Péage-de-Roussillon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Scenic stretch near Le Péage-de-Roussillon comes up about 52 km into the recorded legs. Next is High point near Hauterives.

3. 3. High point near Hauterives

   In 1879 a country postman named Ferdinand Cheval tripped over an oddly shaped stone on his delivery round near Hauterives. He picked it up, took it home, and spent the next thirty-three years building a palace out of stones he collected on his rounds, carrying them in his pockets, then in baskets, then in a wheelbarrow. The result, the Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval, is one of the strangest and most moving buildings in France, a fantastical mass of towers, grottoes, animals and inscriptions, admired by the Surrealists and now a protected monument.

   Read the complete High point near Hauterives write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Back to Ardèche Gorge.

4. 4. Back to Ardèche Gorge

   The Ardèche Gorge, with its limestone cliffs and the great natural arch of the Pont d'Arc, lies about two hundred kilometres to the south, and the place on the map is somewhere far less dramatic: the flat, farmed country of the Nord-Isère, east of Lyon, around L'Isle-d'Abeau. This is a landscape of fields, ponds, low hills and small towns, in the old province of the Dauphiné. L'Isle-d'Abeau itself is a new town, planned in the 1970s to relieve pressure on Lyon, with housing estates, shopping centres and a business park, while the older villages of Saint-Savin, Trept and Salagnon retain their churches and farms.

   Read the complete Ardèche Gorge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back to Ardèche Gorge closes the day.