Maison de la Culture de Firminy and Hautecombe

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Maison de la Culture de Firminy

   Firminy is a coal-and-steel town in the Loire valley that happens to hold the largest group of Le Corbusier buildings in Europe. The architect was invited here in the 1950s to plan a new neighbourhood, Firminy-Vert, for workers whose old houses were crumbling, and over the next decades several of his designs went up: a housing block, a stadium, a youth and culture centre and, finished long after his death, a great concrete church. The Maison de la Culture is the long, bold building with a sagging roof that looks as if it had been poured from a jug, and it is part of the UNESCO listing given to his work in 2016.

   Read the complete Maison de la Culture de Firminy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Maison de la Culture de Firminy is where the day begins. Next is Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette.

2. 2. Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette

   A concrete box on stilts, set on a slope among trees, is not what you expect from a Dominican priory. Le Corbusier designed the convent of La Tourette in the late 1950s for the friars of the order, and it was completed in 1960, with the young composer and architect Iannis Xenakis working on its rhythmic window walls. The church is a bare cube of rough concrete, lit by a few carefully placed openings, and the cells for the friars are small and very quiet, each with a balcony. It is a place where the building is the sermon, and it was added to the UNESCO list in 2016.

   Read the complete Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hautecombe.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 217 km into the recorded legs you reach Hautecombe. Next is back through Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette.

4. 4. back through Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Couvent Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette, late in the day. Next is Maison de la Culture de Firminy.

5. 5. Maison de la Culture de Firminy

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Maison de la Culture de Firminy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Maison de la Culture de Firminy. That is the ride.