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.
141 km from Yvonand to Yvonand, about 2 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of La Bessime, Chenevières de Guévaux I, Strandboden and Segelboothafen. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 21 km this is Jura Crest Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
At the south end of Lake Neuchâtel, below the old Roman and medieval town of Yverdon, the shore turns into a wide, flat belt of reed beds and meadow, one of the biggest areas of shoreline marsh in Switzerland. Le Marais, near the village of Yvonand, belongs to this landscape, and like many places along the lake it also belongs to the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings that UNESCO lists, because the shallows hold timbers and artefacts from villages built on stilts thousands of years ago. The remains lie under water or mud, so there is nothing to see at the spot but reeds, willows and the glinting lake, but a visit to the museum in Yverdon or Neuchâtel brings the finds to life.
Read the complete Le Marais write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Le Marais is where the day begins. Next is La Bessime.
Lake Neuchâtel is the largest lake entirely within Switzerland, a long, narrow body of water at the foot of the Jura mountains, and its shallow shores have been home to people for thousands of years. La Bessime 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. Like most such sites, it lies underwater or buried in the lake bed, with the remains of wooden posts, tools, pottery and food preserved in the mud, invisible to the visitor but invaluable to archaeologists.
Read the complete La Bessime write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Bessime comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Lake Murten is small, shallow and warm, framed on its north side by the vine-covered whale back of Mont Vully. Under its shallows near the Vully shore lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and Chenevières de Guévaux is one of them, part of the UNESCO site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber posts along lake shores like this one. Waterlogged conditions preserved posts, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years, and the finds transformed what we know about early farming communities in Europe.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Chenevières de Guévaux I. Next is Strandboden.
Erlach sits at the south-western tip of Lake Biel, a little Bernese town of one steep street climbing to a castle, with vineyards on the slope behind and reed beds and beaches along the shore below. The flat ground by the water, the Strandboden, is where archaeologists have found traces of prehistoric lakeside villages, part of the network of pile dwelling sites around the Alps inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Five or six thousand years ago farmers built their houses here on posts at the water's edge, and the waterlogged mud preserved timbers, tools, seeds and even textiles in astonishing detail.
Read the complete Strandboden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Strandboden, about halfway. Next is Segelboothafen.
Murten is the rare Swiss town where you can walk the medieval walls almost all the way round, looking down on brown tiled roofs on one side and the lake on the other. Its sailing harbour, the Segelboothafen, lies just below the old town on the shore of Lake Murten, and in the shallows here are the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings, one of the Swiss components of the transnational World Heritage Site of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Nothing shows above the water, but the lakeshore has been a place to live for thousands of years.
Read the complete Segelboothafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segelboothafen sits at 71 km, about halfway. Next is back through Strandboden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Strandboden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Strandboden comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Chenevières de Guévaux I. Next is back through La Bessime.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Bessime write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Bessime, late in the day. Next is Le Marais.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Le Marais write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 141 km.
Le Marais → La Bessime is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Bessime → Chenevières de Guévaux I is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chenevières de Guévaux I → Strandboden is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Strandboden → Segelboothafen is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segelboothafen → back through Strandboden is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Strandboden → back through Chenevières de Guévaux I is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I → back through La Bessime is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Bessime → Le Marais is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.