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 186 km round trip from Yverdon-les-Bains - roughly 3 h 33 in the saddle. It goes by way of Les Argilliez, Pointe de Montbec I, Strandboden and Chenevières de Guévaux I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 15 km this is Jura Crest Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Corcelettes is a little lakeside hamlet just north of Grandson, near the southern tip of Lake Neuchâtel, and Les Violes is the stretch of shallow shore where Bronze Age people built a village of wooden houses on piles, some three thousand years ago. The site was one of the first in the region to attract attention in the nineteenth century, when low water levels after the correction of the Jura waters exposed forests of ancient posts in the mud. It is now listed among the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Corcelettes Les Violes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Corcelettes Les Violes is where the day begins. Next is Les Argilliez.
Around the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, the water level once sat lower than it does now, and prehistoric farmers built villages on pilings along the edge. Les Argilliez, near Gorgier on the northwest shore, preserves traces of one of them. The wet mud at the bottom of the lake kept wood, textiles and tools in astonishing condition, which is why the pile dwellings around the Alps were inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. There is little to see above the waterline, but the idea of a village standing on stilts in these waters, with the Jura mountains behind it, is a strong one.
Read the complete Les Argilliez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les Argilliez comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pointe de Montbec I.
The south shore of Lake Neuchâtel is a long, soft margin of reeds, shallow water and woodland, and it hides one of the richest archaeological records in Europe. Pointe de Montbec, near the villages along the Fribourg and Vaud shore opposite Neuchâtel, is one of the places where prehistoric lake dwellers built their villages on the water's edge thousands of years ago. Their houses stood on piles driven into the soft lake shore, and when lake levels rose, the remains were sealed under water and mud, preserving wood, textiles, seeds and tools in astonishing detail. The prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps were inscribed by UNESCO in 2011 as a single serial site spanning six countries, and this shore contributes a good number of them.
Read the complete Pointe de Montbec I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Pointe de Montbec I. Next is Strandboden.
Erlach sits at the south-western tip of Lake Biel, a little Bernese town of one steep street climbing to a castle, with vineyards on the slope behind and reed beds and beaches along the shore below. The flat ground by the water, the Strandboden, is where archaeologists have found traces of prehistoric lakeside villages, part of the network of pile dwelling sites around the Alps inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Five or six thousand years ago farmers built their houses here on posts at the water's edge, and the waterlogged mud preserved timbers, tools, seeds and even textiles in astonishing detail.
Read the complete Strandboden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Strandboden, about halfway. Next is Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Lake Murten is small, shallow and warm, framed on its north side by the vine-covered whale back of Mont Vully. Under its shallows near the Vully shore lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and Chenevières de Guévaux is one of them, part of the UNESCO site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber posts along lake shores like this one. Waterlogged conditions preserved posts, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years, and the finds transformed what we know about early farming communities in Europe.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chenevières de Guévaux I sits at 75 km, about halfway. Next is back through Strandboden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Strandboden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Strandboden comes up about 110 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Pointe de Montbec I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pointe de Montbec I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 130 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pointe de Montbec I. Next is back through Les Argilliez.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Argilliez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Les Argilliez, late in the day. Next is Corcelettes Les Violes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Corcelettes Les Violes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 186 km.
Corcelettes Les Violes → Les Argilliez is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Argilliez → Pointe de Montbec I is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pointe de Montbec I → Strandboden is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Strandboden → Chenevières de Guévaux I is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chenevières de Guévaux I → back through Strandboden is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Strandboden → back through Pointe de Montbec I is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pointe de Montbec I → back through Les Argilliez is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Argilliez → Corcelettes Les Violes is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.