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 489 km round trip from Villegailhenc - roughly 9 h 50 in the saddle. On the way it passes Château de Termes, Château de Puilaurens, L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis and Abric de la Vall d'Ingla. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from France into Spain - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 44 km this is Ruta del Cares · N-260, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Four castles perch on a narrow rock ridge above the village of Lastours, in the Montagne Noire north of Carcassonne, and they look so improbable from the viewpoint across the valley that most people stop talking when they see them. The two streams, the Orbiel and the Grésilhou, wrap around the ridge, and the castles, Cabaret, Tour Régine, Surdespine and Quertinheux, stand along its length like beads on a string.
Read the complete Châteaux de Lastours write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Châteaux de Lastours 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 72 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 134 km into the recorded legs you reach Château de Puilaurens. Next is L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis.
At around sixteen hundred metres, Mont-Louis is often described as the highest fortified town in France, and it feels like a frontier outpost even today. Vauban designed it in 1679 to guard the newly drawn border after the Treaty of the Pyrenees, placing it on a strategic shelf at the meeting of three valleys: the Têt dropping towards Perpignan, the Aude running north, and the wide basin of the Cerdanya opening to the west. The citadel is still used by the French army, home to a commando training centre, so parts of it are closed to visitors, but the walls and the small grid of streets inside them are free to wander.
Read the complete L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis, about halfway. Next is Abric de la Vall d'Ingla.
The Cerdanya is a high, wide, sunny valley in the eastern Pyrenees, shared between Catalonia and France, and its southern wall is the long limestone barrier of the Serra del Cadí. The Vall d'Ingla cuts into that wall just above Bellver de Cerdanya and the neighbouring village of Éller, and the rock shelter there is one of the archaeological traces of people who used these valleys long before towns and borders. You are inside the Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park, a protected area of pine forest, cliffs and high pasture.
Read the complete Abric de la Vall d'Ingla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric de la Vall d'Ingla sits at 189 km, about halfway. Next is back through L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis comes up about 289 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 355 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Château de Puilaurens. 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, late in the day. Next is Châteaux de Lastours.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Châteaux de Lastours write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 489 km.
Châteaux de Lastours → Château de Termes is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Termes → Château de Puilaurens is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Puilaurens → L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis → Abric de la Vall d'Ingla is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de la Vall d'Ingla → back through L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through L’enceinte et la citadelle de Mont-Louis → back through Château de Puilaurens is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Puilaurens → back through Château de Termes is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Termes → Châteaux de Lastours is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.