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.
322 km from Saint-Jorioz to Saint-Jorioz, about 5 h 47 of riding. On the way it passes Bellerive I, Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux and back through Bellerive I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from France into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
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 66 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 Bellerive I.
Lake Geneva has a gentle northern shore and a steep one, and Bellerive lies on the quiet side. Collonge-Bellerive is a village on the Geneva side of the lake, a few kilometres from the city, with lawns running down to the water, old villas and a small harbour where sailing boats bob. Some five thousand years ago, people built houses on piles in the shallows here, and what remains of that settlement lies below the surface, protected as part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011. There is nothing to see from the shore except the lake and the Alps, so the visit is about the setting.
Read the complete Bellerive I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bellerive I comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. Next is Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux.
The Jura plateau behind Clairvaux-les-Lacs is a country of limestone, cows and lakes, and the Grand Lac de Clairvaux is the largest of the lakes that give the town its name. Prehistoric people lived on its shore on pilings, in villages that rose and fell for centuries, and the waterlogged mud preserved their wood and tools. The sites on Clairvaux's lakes are among the pile-dwelling places inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2011. The lake today is a quiet blue sheet, ringed by reeds and low wooded hills, with a beach where families swim in July.
Read the complete Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 161 km into the recorded legs you reach Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux. Next is back through Bellerive I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bellerive I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bellerive I, late in the day. 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.
Back at Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz. That is the ride.
Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz → Bellerive I is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bellerive I → Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux → back through Bellerive I is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bellerive I → Les Marais de Saint-Jorioz is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.