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.
122 km from Villegailhenc to Villegailhenc, about 2 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne, Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc and back through Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne.
Carcassonne is the fortress that every child draws when asked for a castle: a double ring of walls with about fifty towers, pointed slate roofs, a drawbridge and a keep, rising from a hilltop above the river Aude. The medieval city, known as La Cité, is the largest walled town in Europe still standing, and much of what you see was heavily restored in the nineteenth century by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, whose steep roofs on the towers are more northern French than local. The result is spectacular if debatable, and UNESCO listed the site in 1997.
Read the complete Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc. Next is back through Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne, 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.
Back at Châteaux de Lastours. That is the ride.
Châteaux de Lastours → Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne → Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc → back through Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne → Châteaux de Lastours is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.