CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Orange it runs 192 km to Orange; allow about 3 h 11 of riding. The stops in between: Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Pont du Gard, The Maison Carrée of Nîmes and back through Pont du Gard. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows Arc de triomphe → Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace for 28 km.
Orange is a Provençal town of thirty thousand on the edge of the Rhône plain, and it has two of the finest Roman monuments in Europe. The first is the triumphal arch, standing on the old Via Agrippa at the northern entrance to the town, built in the time of Augustus and later dedicated to Tiberius. It is covered in carved reliefs of battles, naval trophies and captured Gauls, celebrating the victories of the legions, and despite two thousand years of wind and traffic, the carvings remain impressive. The second is the Roman theatre, with its stage wall still standing intact, more than a hundred metres long and over thirty high. Louis XIV is said to have called it the finest wall in his kingdom. In summer, the theatre hosts the Chorégies, an opera festival with performances under the stars. Both monuments were listed by UNESCO in 1981.
Read the complete Arc de triomphe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Arc de triomphe is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace.
For most of the fourteenth century, the popes lived in Avignon rather than Rome. In 1309, Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, settled here to escape the turmoil of Italian politics, and his successors built a vast palace, the Palais des Papes, the largest Gothic palace in Europe, with massive walls, towers and halls, more fortress than residence. Seven popes reigned here until 1377, when the papacy returned to Rome, and then rival popes continued to rule from Avignon during the Great Schism. The palace, the cathedral, the ramparts and the famous bridge, the Pont Saint-Bénézet, were listed by UNESCO in 1995.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace comes up 28 km in. Next is Pont du Gard.
Built without mortar, three tiers of arches carry a water channel across the gorge of the Gardon nearly fifty metres above the river, and the stones still fit together as if they had been placed last week. The Pont du Gard was one section of an aqueduct some fifty kilometres long that brought spring water from near Uzès to Roman Nîmes in the first century, with a total drop of only a few metres over the whole distance. It is a masterpiece of surveying as much as building, and it has stood through floods that have destroyed far younger bridges.
Read the complete Pont du Gard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
55 km in you reach Pont du Gard. Next is The Maison Carrée of Nîmes.
Most Roman temples survive as a jumble of columns and a lot of imagination. The Maison Carrée in Nîmes is the exception: a complete temple, standing on its podium with its roof and columns intact, two thousand years after it was built for the grandsons of Augustus. It owes its survival to being constantly reused, as a meeting hall, a stable, a church and a museum. Thomas Jefferson admired it so much that he based the Virginia State Capitol on it, and in 2023 UNESCO finally listed it in its own right.
Read the complete The Maison Carrée of Nîmes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Maison Carrée of Nîmes, about halfway. Next is back through Pont du Gard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pont du Gard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pont du Gard sits at 111 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace comes up 138 km in. Next is Arc de triomphe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Arc de triomphe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Arc de triomphe closes the day.
Arc de triomphe → Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace → Pont du Gard is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pont du Gard → The Maison Carrée of Nîmes is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Maison Carrée of Nîmes → back through Pont du Gard is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pont du Gard → back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace → Arc de triomphe is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.