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.
264 km from Saint-Jorioz to Saint-Jorioz, about 4 h 50 of riding. It goes by way of Baie de Grésine, Lac d’Aiguebelette, Hautecombe and back through Lac d’Aiguebelette. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 30 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
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.
Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 48 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lac d’Aiguebelette.
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.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Lac d’Aiguebelette. Next is Hautecombe.
Hautecombe Abbey stands on the western shore of Lac du Bourget, in Savoy, and it is almost impossible to reach without seeing the lake first. The Lac du Bourget is the largest natural lake entirely in France, a deep blue sheet under limestone cliffs, and the abbey sits on a small rocky spur above the water, with a boat landing and a church whose tower is visible across the bay. The poet Lamartine, who fell in love here in 1816, wrote a famous poem called Le Lac, about a lost love at this water.
Read the complete Hautecombe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hautecombe, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Lac d’Aiguebelette sits at 128 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 215 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz closes the day.
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 → Lac d’Aiguebelette is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lac d’Aiguebelette → Hautecombe is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hautecombe → back through Lac d’Aiguebelette is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lac d’Aiguebelette → back through Baie de Grésine is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baie de Grésine → Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.