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 Cognin it runs 364 km to Cognin; allow about 6 h 38 of riding. It goes by way of Baie de Châtillon, Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz, Baie de Grésine and Le Crêt de Chatillon. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 39 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Baie de Châtillon comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz.
Lake Annecy is often called the cleanest lake in Europe, and on a summer day its water is such a startling shade of turquoise that it looks retouched. The lake fills a long valley among the limestone mountains of Haute-Savoie, with the town of Annecy at its northern end, and its western shore, around Saint-Jorioz, is a flat area of reeds and meadows, the Marais de Saint-Jorioz, where prehistoric people built villages on piles. The remains are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011, and lie hidden under the water and the marshes.
Read the complete Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz. Next is Baie de Grésine.
Lac du Bourget is the largest natural lake in France, a long, deep lake in Savoie between the Jura and the Alps, and the poet Alphonse de Lamartine made it famous with his poem Le Lac, written after a love affair that began on its shores. The Baie de Grésine, near Brison-Saint-Innocent on the eastern shore, is one of the prehistoric pile-dwelling sites of the lake, part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps listed by UNESCO in 2011. As with other such sites, the remains lie underwater, but the bay and its surroundings are a beautiful place to stop.
Read the complete Baie de Grésine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baie de Grésine, about halfway. 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 sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Baie de Grésine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baie de Grésine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Baie de Grésine comes up about 225 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 274 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz. 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, late in the day. Next is Lac d’Aiguebelette.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lac d’Aiguebelette write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 364 km.
Lac d’Aiguebelette → Baie de Châtillon is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baie de Châtillon → Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz → Baie de Grésine is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baie de Grésine → Le Crêt de Chatillon is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Le Crêt de Chatillon → back through Baie de Grésine is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baie de Grésine → back through Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz → back through Baie de Châtillon is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baie de Châtillon → Lac d’Aiguebelette is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.