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.
348 km from Estagel to Estagel, about 6 h 46 of riding. It goes by way of Château de Termes, Château et remparts de Carcassonne, Château de Montségur and back through Château et remparts de Carcassonne. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Quéribus clings to the top of a limestone pinnacle like a crown, so improbably perched that it is hard to believe people ever built it, let alone held it under siege. It is often described as the last Cathar stronghold: when Montségur fell in 1244, the remaining Cathar refugees and their supporters found shelter here, and the castle held out until 1255, when it finally surrendered to the forces of the French king. It then became a royal fortress guarding the border with Aragon, until the frontier moved south in 1659 and its usefulness ended.
Read the complete Château de Quéribus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Quéribus is where the day begins. Next is Château de Termes.
In the summer of 1210, Simon de Montfort, leader of the crusade against the Cathars, brought his army to the remote castle of Termes, in the heart of the Corbières, and laid siege to it. The castle's lord, Raymond de Termes, held out for four months, and the defenders only surrendered when their water supply was contaminated and disease broke out, or so the story goes. The castle became a royal fortress, guarding the border with Aragon, and was eventually dismantled in the seventeenth century. Today, its ruins sprawl over a rocky spur above the village, with remains of walls, towers and a chapel, and the views over the wild hills of the Corbières are tremendous.
Read the complete Château de Termes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Termes comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Château et remparts de Carcassonne.
Carcassonne has two faces. Down by the river Aude sits the ordinary lower town, a grid of streets laid out in the thirteenth century around a market square, and on the hill above rises the Cité, a double ring of walls and fifty-odd towers that looks like the illustration to a children's book about knights. The Cité was inscribed by UNESCO in 1997, and it is one of the most visited monuments in France, with the nearest sizeable roads and everything a rider needs just a kilometre away in the modern town.
Read the complete Château et remparts de Carcassonne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Château et remparts de Carcassonne. Next is Château de Montségur.
The castle of Montségur sits on a steep limestone peak, the pog, at about twelve hundred metres above the valleys of the Ariège, and even from the road below it looks impossible. In the thirteenth century it was the last great refuge of the Cathars, the dualist Christians condemned as heretics by the Church and crushed by the Albigensian Crusade. In 1243 a royal army laid siege to the summit, and after ten months the defenders surrendered in March 1244. Those who refused to renounce their faith, more than two hundred people, were burned at the foot of the mountain, in a place still called the Field of the Burned. A simple stone memorial stands there today.
Read the complete Château de Montségur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Montségur, about halfway. Next is back through Château et remparts de Carcassonne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château et remparts de Carcassonne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château et remparts de Carcassonne sits at 187 km, about halfway. Next is back through Château de Termes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château de Termes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château de Termes comes up about 312 km into the recorded legs. Next is Château de Quéribus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château de Quéribus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Quéribus closes the day.
Château de Quéribus → Château de Termes is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Termes → Château et remparts de Carcassonne is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château et remparts de Carcassonne → Château de Montségur is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Château de Montségur → back through Château et remparts de Carcassonne is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Château et remparts de Carcassonne → back through Château de Termes is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Termes → Château de Quéribus is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.