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 274 km round trip from Carcassonne - roughly 6 h 00 in the saddle. It goes by way of Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc, Château de Puilaurens, Château de Peyrepertuse and back through Château de Puilaurens. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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.
Château et remparts de Carcassonne is where the day begins. Next is Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc.
The Corbières are a rugged knot of hills between Carcassonne and the Pyrenees, covered in garrigue, vineyards and dark oak woods, and dotted with castles that seem to grow out of the rock. After the crusade against the Cathars in the thirteenth century, the French crown took over the region and rebuilt a string of fortresses to guard the border with Aragon: Peyrepertuse, Quéribus, Puilaurens, Termes, Aguilar and the walled city of Carcassonne itself, often called the five sons of Carcassonne.
Read the complete Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Château de Puilaurens.
Perched on a rocky spur above a forest of firs and beeches, at around seven hundred metres, the castle of Puilaurens looks like something drawn by a child who loves castles: battlements, towers, walls following every edge of the rock. It is one of the so-called Cathar castles of the Languedoc, a group of fortresses linked to the crusade launched against the Cathar heretics in the thirteenth century. After the region came under French control, the castle was rebuilt as a royal fortress guarding the frontier with the Kingdom of Aragon, which lay just to the south until the seventeenth century. The climb up from the car park is steep but short, and the views from the top over the Fenouillèdes and the Pyrenean foothills are superb.
Read the complete Château de Puilaurens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Château de Puilaurens. Next is Château de Peyrepertuse.
You see it long before you understand it. From the road below Duilhac, Peyrepertuse looks like part of the mountain: a grey ridge of limestone with walls grown along its spine, so long and thin that people compare it to a stone ship. Up close it is two castles in one. The lower fortress on the eastern end is older, and at the western summit stands the keep of Sant Jordi, added by the French crown after Louis IX took control of the Corbières in the mid-thirteenth century. The site sits around 800 metres up, and the climb from the car park is short but steep, on a rocky path that is no fun in stiff motorcycle boots, so bring trainers if you can.
Read the complete Château de Peyrepertuse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Peyrepertuse, about halfway. Next is back through Château de Puilaurens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château de Puilaurens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château de Puilaurens sits at 125 km, about halfway. Next is back through Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc comes up about 233 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Château et remparts de Carcassonne closes the day.
Château et remparts de Carcassonne → Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc → Château de Puilaurens is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Puilaurens → Château de Peyrepertuse is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Peyrepertuse → back through Château de Puilaurens is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Puilaurens → back through Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc → Château et remparts de Carcassonne is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.