Why this ride
278 km from Chartres to Chartres, about 4 h 42 of riding. The stops in between: Palace and Park of Versailles, Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner, Paris and back through Palace and Park of Versailles. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Chartres Cathedral and Paris
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 278 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 42
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Chartres Cathedral → Palace and Park of Versailles
The ride follows Chartres Cathedral → Palace and Park of Versailles for 78 km.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 78 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Chartres Cathedral
You see Chartres from miles away across the wheat. The Beauce is a vast, flat plain, one of the great granaries of France, and the cathedral rises out of it with two mismatched spires, like a ship on a green sea. After a fire in 1194 destroyed most of the earlier church, the townspeople rebuilt it in about thirty years, a remarkable pace for the time, and as a result the building has a unity that few Gothic cathedrals can claim. It was one of the first sites to be added to the UNESCO list, in 1979.
Read the complete Chartres Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chartres Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Palace and Park of Versailles.
2. Palace and Park of Versailles
Louis XIV wanted a stage on which the whole French nobility would have to perform for him, and Versailles is what that ambition looks like in stone, gilt and gravel. His father's modest hunting lodge on a damp plateau west of Paris grew, over decades of building, into the palace you see now, and in 1682 the court moved out here for good. The Hall of Mirrors, the chapel, the endless enfilade of state rooms: all of it was designed so that a duke had to queue to watch the king get dressed. A long way from the Paris mob, too, which was rather the point, until the mob walked out here in October 1789 and fetched the royal family back to the city.
Read the complete Palace and Park of Versailles write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palace and Park of Versailles comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner.
3. Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner
On a gentle rise above the Seine at Poissy, set back from the road in a meadow ringed by trees, a white box floats on thin columns. Villa Savoye is perhaps the most famous house of the twentieth century, designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret for a wealthy family as a weekend retreat and completed in 1931. It is the purest built expression of Le Corbusier's five points of a new architecture: pilotis, a free plan, a free façade, horizontal ribbon windows and a roof garden. Since 2016 it has been part of the World Heritage site of his architectural work, along with the small gardener's lodge at the entrance, a miniature echo of the main house.
Read the complete Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner.
4. Palace and Park of Versailles
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palace and Park of Versailles write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palace and Park of Versailles, about halfway. Next is Paris.
5. Paris
It is a gift from the ruler of Egypt, about three thousand years old, and it was set up here in 1836 on the spot where the guillotine stood during the Revolution. Louis XVI was executed on this square in 1793, and so, in the Terror that followed, were over a thousand others. Now the square is a roundabout with fountains, ringed by traffic and framed by the Tuileries gardens on one side and the Madeleine church on the other. The banks of the Seine in this part of the city are UNESCO listed.
Read the complete Paris write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Paris sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Palace and Park of Versailles.
6. back through Palace and Park of Versailles
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palace and Park of Versailles write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Palace and Park of Versailles comes up about 160 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner.
7. back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 181 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner.
8. back through Palace and Park of Versailles
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palace and Park of Versailles write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Palace and Park of Versailles, late in the day. Next is Chartres Cathedral.
9. Chartres Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chartres Cathedral 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 278 km.
Leg by leg
Chartres Cathedral to Palace and Park of Versailles
Chartres Cathedral → Palace and Park of Versailles is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Palace and Park of Versailles to Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner
Palace and Park of Versailles → Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner to Palace and Park of Versailles
Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner → Palace and Park of Versailles is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palace and Park of Versailles to Paris
Palace and Park of Versailles → Paris is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paris to back through Palace and Park of Versailles
Paris → back through Palace and Park of Versailles is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palace and Park of Versailles to back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner
back through Palace and Park of Versailles → back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner to back through Palace and Park of Versailles
back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner → back through Palace and Park of Versailles is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palace and Park of Versailles to Chartres Cathedral
back through Palace and Park of Versailles → Chartres Cathedral is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.