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 333 km round trip from Nidau - roughly 4 h 35 in the saddle. The stops in between: Corcelettes Les Violes, Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman and back through Corcelettes Les Violes. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into France - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 54 km this is Jura Crest Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The label says only "Bahnhof", which is a nicely Swiss joke, because the real attraction here is not a station at all but the south shore of Lake Biel between Täuffelen, Gerolfingen and Lüscherz. This is the Seeland, a low, fertile plain between the lakes, and the villages along the shore are surrounded by vegetable fields, orchards and vineyards on the gentle slopes. Like the shores of Lake Neuchâtel to the south, this lake edge was home to prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and several sites around Lake Biel form part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The finds, from pottery to wooden tools, tell of farming communities that lived here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Bahnhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bahnhof is where the day begins. Next is Corcelettes Les Violes.
Corcelettes is a little lakeside hamlet just north of Grandson, near the southern tip of Lake Neuchâtel, and Les Violes is the stretch of shallow shore where Bronze Age people built a village of wooden houses on piles, some three thousand years ago. The site was one of the first in the region to attract attention in the nineteenth century, when low water levels after the correction of the Jura waters exposed forests of ancient posts in the mud. It is now listed among the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Corcelettes Les Violes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Corcelettes Les Violes comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman.
On the French shore of Lake Geneva, just across the border from Switzerland, the village of Chens-sur-Léman sits among fields and woods above the water. Along its shoreline, at places such as Tougues and Les Grèves, the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings lie in the shallow water, and they are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage site. On calm days, when the water is clear and low, it is sometimes possible to see the stumps of ancient wooden piles sticking out of the lakebed, a quiet reminder of the people who lived here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 166 km into the recorded legs you reach Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman. Next is back through Corcelettes Les Violes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Corcelettes Les Violes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Corcelettes Les Violes, late in the day. Next is Bahnhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bahnhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Bahnhof. That is the ride.
Bahnhof → Corcelettes Les Violes is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Corcelettes Les Violes → Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman is 112 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman → back through Corcelettes Les Violes is 113 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Corcelettes Les Violes → Bahnhof is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.