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 433 km round trip from Prades - roughly 9 h 05 in the saddle. The stops in between: Château de Quéribus, Château de Puilaurens, Château de Termes and Château et remparts de Carcassonne. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 de Quéribus.
Quéribus clings to the top of a limestone pinnacle like a crown, so improbably perched that it is hard to believe people ever built it, let alone held it under siege. It is often described as the last Cathar stronghold: when Montségur fell in 1244, the remaining Cathar refugees and their supporters found shelter here, and the castle held out until 1255, when it finally surrendered to the forces of the French king. It then became a royal fortress guarding the border with Aragon, until the frontier moved south in 1659 and its usefulness ended.
Read the complete Château de Quéribus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Quéribus comes up about 66 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 101 km into the recorded legs you reach Château de Puilaurens. Next is Château de Termes.
In the summer of 1210, Simon de Montfort, leader of the crusade against the Cathars, brought his army to the remote castle of Termes, in the heart of the Corbières, and laid siege to it. The castle's lord, Raymond de Termes, held out for four months, and the defenders only surrendered when their water supply was contaminated and disease broke out, or so the story goes. The castle became a royal fortress, guarding the border with Aragon, and was eventually dismantled in the seventeenth century. Today, its ruins sprawl over a rocky spur above the village, with remains of walls, towers and a chapel, and the views over the wild hills of the Corbières are tremendous.
Read the complete Château de Termes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de Termes, about halfway. 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.
Château et remparts de Carcassonne sits at 161 km, about halfway. Next is back through Château de Termes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château de Termes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château de Termes comes up about 269 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 331 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Château de Puilaurens. Next is back through Château de Quéribus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château de Quéribus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château de Quéribus, 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.
The route ends here after 433 km.
L’enceinte → Château de Quéribus is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Quéribus → Château de Puilaurens is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Puilaurens → Château de Termes is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de Termes → Château et remparts de Carcassonne is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château et remparts de Carcassonne → back through Château de Termes is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Termes → back through Château de Puilaurens is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Puilaurens → back through Château de Quéribus is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château de Quéribus → L’enceinte is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.