Why this ride
746 km from Saint-Martin-en-Haut to Saint-André-de-Corcy, about 12 h 33 of riding. On the way it passes in Saint-Étienne, Scenic stretch in Moidieu and Péronnas. near L'Isle-d'Abeau is the high point.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Lac du Bourget Balcony Ride + Dombes Lakes Easy Scenic
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 746 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 12 h 33
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
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.
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.
Scenic road chapters
Lac du Bourget Balcony Ride fuel gate → Lac du Bourget Balcony Ride fo
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 36 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 35 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fuel stop in Saint-Martin-en-Haut
Saint-Martin-en-Haut lives up to its name: it sits high in the Monts du Lyonnais, on a plateau around seven hundred metres up, about thirty kilometres west of Lyon. On a clear day, the views from the village stretch east over the Rhône valley to the Alps, with Mont Blanc visible on the horizon, and west over the rolling hills to the Monts du Forez.
Read the complete Fuel stop in Saint-Martin-en-Haut write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lac du Bourget Balcony Ride is where the day begins. Next is Food stop in Saint-Étienne.
2. Food stop in Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne wears its history in layers of coal, iron and cloth, and from the ring roads on the north side you can see how a city spread across a series of ridges, with the hills of the Pilat to the south and the mining basin of the Gier to the east. This is the second time the rides use it as a base, and it makes sense: with nearly a hundred and seventy-six thousand people, it has fuel on every approach, early bakeries and a tram that runs through the centre. The suburbs of Saint-Genest-Lerpt and Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, each with about six thousand people, climb the hills on the north side and make the quickest exit onto quieter roads.
Read the complete Food stop in Saint-Étienne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Food stop in Saint-Étienne is where this day stops to eat. Next is Scenic stretch in Moidieu.
3. Scenic stretch in Moidieu
Moidieu-Détourbe is a quiet village in the hills east of Vienne, in the valley of the Gère, among fields, pastures and woods. It is a typical Bas-Dauphiné village, with a church, a few farms and houses, and a peaceful atmosphere. The surrounding hills offer pleasant views over the countryside.
Read the complete Scenic stretch in Moidieu write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
90 km in you reach Scenic stretch in Moidieu. Next is High point near L'Isle-d'Abeau.
4. High point near L'Isle-d'Abeau
L'Isle-d'Abeau is a town that was planned on paper. In the 1970s, it was chosen as one of the new towns designed to absorb the growth of big French cities, in this case Lyon, and its neighbourhoods were built around the old village on the hills between Lyon and Grenoble. The result is a mix of modern housing, business parks and green spaces, practical rather than beautiful, but surrounded by countryside that is much more appealing.
Read the complete High point near L'Isle-d'Abeau write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The high point of this section. Next is Lyon / Rhône-Alpes rides return.
5. Near Péronnas, on the way back
Bourg-en-Bresse lies just east of here, and this stop sits on its western edge, between Péronnas, Buellas and Saint-Denis-lès-Bourg. The country is gentle, with fields, hedges, farm buildings and the outskirts of a mid-sized town. To the south the Dombes plateau begins, a region of hundreds of shallow ponds created by monks and lords in the Middle Ages for fish farming.
Read the complete Near Péronnas, 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 sits at 180 km, early in the day. Next is Photo stop near Saint-Étienne-sur-Chalaronne.
6. Photo stop near Saint-Étienne-sur-Chalaronne
The Chalaronne winds its last few kilometres towards the Saône past Saint-Étienne-sur-Chalaronne, a quiet village of brick and timber houses at the western edge of the Dombes. Here the plateau of ponds slopes down to the broad Saône valley, and the landscape becomes a mix of meadows, woods and fields, with the hills of the Beaujolais rising on the other side of the river.
Read the complete Photo stop near Saint-Étienne-sur-Chalaronne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Photo stop near Saint-Étienne-sur-Chalaronne comes up 225 km in. Next is Lac du Bourget Balcony Ride checkpoint 8.
7. Near Miribel
East of Lyon, the Rhône splits into channels and lakes on its way into the city, and the vast Grand Parc de Miribel-Jonage has been made out of that watery landscape. This finish lies just above it, on the edge of the Côtière, the steep slope that separates the river plain from the Dombes plateau, between Thil, Beynost and Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost.
Read the complete Near Miribel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lac du Bourget Balcony Ride checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Back to Lac.
8. Back to Lac
Saint-Martin-en-Haut lives up to its name, which means St Martin on the heights. Aveize and the old hamlets of the area sit among meadows and orchards, and the whole region is unexpectedly rural, though it lies less than an hour from the city.
Read the complete Lac write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Finish at Back to Lac. That is the ride. Next is Dombes Lakes Easy Scenic.
9. Fuel stop in Saint-André-de-Corcy
Planning note
Next is Photo stop near Eyzin-Pinet.
10. Photo stop near Eyzin-Pinet
Planning note
Photo stop near Eyzin-Pinet comes up 404 km in. Next is Scenic stretch near Mornant.
11. Scenic stretch near Mornant
Two thousand years ago, engineers from Lugdunum ran an aqueduct through these hills to carry water from the Gier valley to the Roman city, a channel some eighty kilometres long that bridged valleys on stone arches. Around Mornant, sections of those arches still stand in the fields, weathered and patched with ivy, and stumbling upon them on a back road is one of the quiet pleasures of riding in the Monts du Lyonnais.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Mornant write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
449 km in you reach Scenic stretch near Mornant.
12. Sorbiers, on the way back
Saint-Étienne made France's guns, bicycles and ribbons, and dug its coal from under its own streets. Sorbiers lies just north-east of the city, in the Jarez valley, where the industrial past gives way to green hills and small farms. The Monts du Lyonnais rise to the north, the Pilat to the south, and the city sprawls in the valley between.
Read the complete Sorbiers, 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, late in the day. Next is Food stop near Le Perréon.
13. Food stop near Le Perréon
Planning note
Food at 539 km, roughly 10 hours into the riding. Next is High point in Gleizé.
14. High point in Gleizé
Planning note
High point in Gleizé comes up 584 km in. Next is Dombes Lakes Easy Scenic checkpoint 8.
15. Chasselay
In June 1940, as the German army swept south, a unit of Senegalese tirailleurs fighting for France defended the approaches to Lyon at Chasselay. After they surrendered, many of the African soldiers were separated from their white comrades and massacred. Two years later, a cemetery was built for them in the style of a West African tata, a walled enclosure of red earth, with gates and pointed towers. It stands on the edge of the village today, one of the most moving war memorials in France.
Read the complete Chasselay 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 674 km. Next is back to Dombes Lakes Easy.
16. back to Dombes Lakes Easy
Saint-André-de-Corcy is a village on the southern edge of the Dombes, a flat plateau of clay and water north of Lyon that is unlike anywhere else in France. Over the centuries, monks and landowners dug a thousand or so shallow ponds, called étangs, across the clay to raise fish, and the whole landscape is a patchwork of water, reeds, meadows and little woods, with farmhouses built of brick and timber. The dot lies at the southern edge of this strange country, with Mionnay just beside it.
Read the complete Dombes Lakes Easy write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back to Dombes Lakes Easy closes the day.
Leg by leg
Fuel stop in Saint-Martin-en-Haut to Food stop in Saint-Étienne
Fuel stop in Saint-Martin-en-Haut → Food stop in Saint-Étienne is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop in Saint-Étienne to Scenic stretch in Moidieu
Food stop in Saint-Étienne → Scenic stretch in Moidieu is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Scenic stretch in Moidieu to High point near L'Isle-d'Abeau
Scenic stretch in Moidieu → High point near L'Isle-d'Abeau is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near L'Isle-d'Abeau to Near Péronnas, on the way back
High point near L'Isle-d'Abeau → Near Péronnas, on the way back is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Saint-Étienne-sur-Chalaronne to Near Miribel
Photo stop near Saint-Étienne-sur-Chalaronne → Near Miribel is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Lac to Fuel stop in Saint-André-de-Corcy
Back to Lac → Fuel stop in Saint-André-de-Corcy is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop in Saint-André-de-Corcy to Photo stop near Eyzin-Pinet
Fuel stop in Saint-André-de-Corcy → Photo stop near Eyzin-Pinet is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Eyzin-Pinet to Scenic stretch near Mornant
Photo stop near Eyzin-Pinet → Scenic stretch near Mornant is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Mornant to Sorbiers, on the way back
Scenic stretch near Mornant → Sorbiers, on the way back is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop near Le Perréon to High point in Gleizé
Food stop near Le Perréon → High point in Gleizé is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point in Gleizé to Chasselay
High point in Gleizé → Chasselay is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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