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.
From Carcassonne it runs 308 km to Carcassonne; allow about 6 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Royal Capetian Fortresses of Languedoc, Château de Puilaurens, L’enceinte and back through Château de Puilaurens. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 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 42 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 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Château de Puilaurens. Next is L’enceinte.
Villefranche-de-Conflent is a whole town inside a wall. Squeezed into the narrow valley of the Têt where it meets a side stream, it was founded in the eleventh century as a stronghold of the Counts of Cerdanya, and after the Treaty of the Pyrenees turned this area French in 1659 it was refortified by Vauban to hold the valley against Spain. The ramparts that give the place its label, l'enceinte, are part of the UNESCO listing of Vauban's fortifications, and you can walk along the covered galleries inside the walls. High above the town on the mountainside sits Fort Liberia, linked to the village by a long underground stairway.
Read the complete L’enceinte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
L’enceinte, 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 130 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 268 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne closes the day.
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 → Château de Puilaurens is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Puilaurens → L’enceinte is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
L’enceinte → back through Château de Puilaurens is 60 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 → Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.