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.
194 km from Gorgier to Gorgier, about 3 h 16 of riding. On the way it passes Chenevières de Guévaux I, Bahnhof, Segelboothafen and back through Bahnhof. 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 38 km this is Jura Crest Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Around the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, the water level once sat lower than it does now, and prehistoric farmers built villages on pilings along the edge. Les Argilliez, near Gorgier on the northwest shore, preserves traces of one of them. The wet mud at the bottom of the lake kept wood, textiles and tools in astonishing condition, which is why the pile dwellings around the Alps were inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. There is little to see above the waterline, but the idea of a village standing on stilts in these waters, with the Jura mountains behind it, is a strong one.
Read the complete Les Argilliez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les Argilliez is where the day begins. 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.
Chenevières de Guévaux I comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bahnhof.
The label says only "Bahnhof", which is a nicely Swiss joke, because the real attraction here is not a station at all but the south shore of Lake Biel between Täuffelen, Gerolfingen and Lüscherz. This is the Seeland, a low, fertile plain between the lakes, and the villages along the shore are surrounded by vegetable fields, orchards and vineyards on the gentle slopes. Like the shores of Lake Neuchâtel to the south, this lake edge was home to prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and several sites around Lake Biel form part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The finds, from pottery to wooden tools, tell of farming communities that lived here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Bahnhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Bahnhof. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Bahnhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bahnhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bahnhof sits at 105 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I comes up about 155 km into the recorded legs. Next is Les Argilliez.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Argilliez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les Argilliez closes the day.
Les Argilliez → Chenevières de Guévaux I is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chenevières de Guévaux I → Bahnhof is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bahnhof → Segelboothafen is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segelboothafen → back through Bahnhof is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bahnhof → back through Chenevières de Guévaux I is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I → Les Argilliez is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.