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 272 km round trip from Genève - roughly 4 h 56 in the saddle. It goes by way of Le Crêt de Chatillon, Baie de Châtillon, Lac d’Aiguebelette and back through Baie de Châtillon. It crosses from Switzerland into France - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 38 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
In 1932, while most of Geneva was building in stone, Le Corbusier put up an apartment block made almost entirely of steel and glass. The Immeuble Clarté, in the Eaux-Vives district on the east side of the city, was revolutionary for its time: a prefabricated steel frame, huge windows that flood the apartments with light, duplex flats with double-height living rooms and a structure that allowed flexible layouts. The name means clarity, and the building lives up to it. Since 2016 it has been part of the UNESCO listing of the architectural work of Le Corbusier, alongside the Villa Savoye, the Unité d'Habitation and other buildings on several continents.
Read the complete Immeuble Clarté write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Immeuble Clarté is where the day begins. Next is Le Crêt de Chatillon.
The Crêt de Châtillon is the summit of the Semnoz, the long wooded mountain that rises above the western shore of Lake Annecy, and from the top, at around 1,700 metres, the view on a clear day is one of the finest in the French Alps: the whole lake below, the Bauges and the Aravis around, and, to the east, Mont Blanc in all its glory. Sites with names like Châtillon and Les Mongets along this shore preserve the remains of villages built on the edge of the lake thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Le Crêt de Chatillon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Le Crêt de Chatillon comes up about 52 km into the recorded legs. Next is Baie de Châtillon.
At the northern tip of the Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake entirely in France, the shore curves into a shallow bay below the village of Châtillon and its castle. In the shallows, divers and archaeologists have found the remains of prehistoric lake villages, and the Baie de Châtillon is one of the French sites included in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The castle, perched on a rocky hill above the bay, was the seat of local lords in the Middle Ages and has a commanding view over the lake.
Read the complete Baie de Châtillon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Baie de Châtillon. Next is Lac d’Aiguebelette.
Motorboats are banned on the Lac d'Aiguebelette, and on a calm summer morning you notice the difference straight away: rowers sliding across water so still it mirrors the wooded slopes above, swimmers heading out from small beaches, and no engine noise beyond the occasional car on the shore road. The lake, in Savoie just west of Chambéry, is one of the largest natural lakes in France, and its clean water is among the warmest of the alpine lakes in summer. It hosted the World Rowing Championships in 2015.
Read the complete Lac d’Aiguebelette write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lac d’Aiguebelette, about halfway. Next is back through Baie de Châtillon.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baie de Châtillon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Baie de Châtillon sits at 163 km, about halfway. Next is back through Le Crêt de Chatillon.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Le Crêt de Chatillon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Le Crêt de Chatillon comes up about 221 km into the recorded legs. Next is Immeuble Clarté.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Immeuble Clarté write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Immeuble Clarté closes the day.
Immeuble Clarté → Le Crêt de Chatillon is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Le Crêt de Chatillon → Baie de Châtillon is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baie de Châtillon → Lac d’Aiguebelette is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lac d’Aiguebelette → back through Baie de Châtillon is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baie de Châtillon → back through Le Crêt de Chatillon is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Le Crêt de Chatillon → Immeuble Clarté is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.