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.
A 417 km round trip from Le Bugue - roughly 6 h 21 in the saddle. On the way it passes Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion, La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B and back through Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
There is a fish in the cliff. It is about a metre long, carved into the ceiling of a small rock shelter in the Gorge d'Enfer, a short, steep-sided valley that opens onto the Vézère near Les Eyzies, and it has been there for roughly twenty-five thousand years. The carver made use of the natural shape of the rock, shaping the outline of a salmon in relief, with the head, an open mouth with its hooked jaw, and the gills. The fish was found in the early twentieth century, and it remains one of the oldest known sculptures of its kind in Europe.
Read the complete Abri du Poisson write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abri du Poisson is where the day begins. Next is Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion.
Saint-Émilion is a wine village that looks like a stage set, with steep, cobbled lanes tumbling down a limestone hillside, golden stone houses, and a bell tower rising above the rooftops. The UNESCO listing covers not just the village but its whole jurisdiction, eight parishes of vineyards around it, recognising a landscape in which vines have been cultivated since Roman times. The village grew around the hermitage of Émilion, a Breton monk who lived in a cave here in the eighth century, and its most remarkable monument is the monolithic church, carved out of the rock beneath the bell tower.
Read the complete Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion comes up about 137 km into the recorded legs. Next is La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B.
The Gironde estuary is wide enough here to feel like an inland sea, and Vauban saw it as the gateway to Bordeaux that needed a lock. His answer, at the end of the seventeenth century, was a triangle of fortifications: the citadel at Blaye on the right bank, Fort Médoc on the left bank at Cussac, and between them Fort Paté, a squat stone tower built on an island in the middle of the river. Together they could cross their fire over the shipping channel, and today they share a place on the UNESCO list of Vauban's works. The citadel of Blaye is the most impressive of the three, a fortified town in its own right, with ramparts, gates and old barracks set high on a bluff above the water.
Read the complete La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 224 km into the recorded legs you reach La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B. Next is back through Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion, late in the day. Next is Abri du Poisson.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abri du Poisson write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Abri du Poisson. That is the ride.
Abri du Poisson → Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion → La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B is 87 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B → back through Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion → Abri du Poisson is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.