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.
304 km from Prades to Prades, about 5 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Château d’Aguilar, Château et remparts de Carcassonne and back through Château d’Aguilar. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Château d’Aguilar.
Aguilar is the castle people overlook, and that is its best feature. While coaches crawl up to Peyrepertuse and Quéribus, this one sits quietly on a low hill above vineyards just outside Tuchan, at the eastern edge of the Corbières, with a squat keep inside a hexagonal outer wall studded with small round towers. It is a modest fortress compared with its famous siblings, but you can walk around it in peace and the views over vines towards Mont Tauch are lovely, especially in the evening.
Read the complete Château d’Aguilar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château d’Aguilar comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Château et remparts de Carcassonne.
Carcassonne has two faces. Down by the river Aude sits the ordinary lower town, a grid of streets laid out in the thirteenth century around a market square, and on the hill above rises the Cité, a double ring of walls and fifty-odd towers that looks like the illustration to a children's book about knights. The Cité was inscribed by UNESCO in 1997, and it is one of the most visited monuments in France, with the nearest sizeable roads and everything a rider needs just a kilometre away in the modern town.
Read the complete Château et remparts de Carcassonne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 152 km into the recorded legs you reach Château et remparts de Carcassonne. Next is back through Château d’Aguilar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château d’Aguilar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château d’Aguilar, late in the day. Next is L’enceinte.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete L’enceinte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at L’enceinte. That is the ride.
L’enceinte → Château d’Aguilar is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château d’Aguilar → Château et remparts de Carcassonne is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château et remparts de Carcassonne → back through Château d’Aguilar is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château d’Aguilar → L’enceinte is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.