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.
302 km from Provins to Provins, about 6 h of riding. The stops in between: Palace and Park of Fontainebleau, Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France, Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner and back through Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. The line favours views over speed.
This part of the ride is 56 km of Provins → Palace and Park of Fontainebleau.
Provins rises out of the wheat fields of the Brie like something from a film set, and the odd thing is that it is almost entirely real. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries this was one of the four great fair towns of the counts of Champagne, where merchants from Flanders, Italy and beyond met to trade cloth, spices and money. When the fairs declined, Provins simply stopped growing, and so its ramparts, its gates and its medieval upper town survived the centuries more or less intact. UNESCO listed it in 2001 as a rare surviving example of a medieval fair town.
Read the complete Provins write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Provins is where the day begins. Next is Palace and Park of Fontainebleau.
Fontainebleau is the palace French kings actually lived in, as opposed to the one they built to impress, and for that reason it feels more human than Versailles. Almost every monarch from the Middle Ages to Napoleon III added a wing, a staircase or a garden, so the place is a jumble of styles, held together by its forest and its long ponds. Napoleon called it the true home of kings, and in April 1814 he said goodbye to his Old Guard in the courtyard that is still known as the Cour des Adieux, at the foot of the horseshoe staircase.
Read the complete Palace and Park of Fontainebleau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Palace and Park of Fontainebleau comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.
At the heart of Paris, beside the rue de Rivoli, stands a Gothic tower that belongs to a church that no longer exists. The Tour Saint-Jacques is all that survives of the church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, built in the early sixteenth century in the flamboyant Gothic style, and it was the traditional gathering point for pilgrims leaving Paris for Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. The church was demolished after the Revolution, but the tower was saved, and it now stands in a small garden, topped by a statue of Saint James.
Read the complete Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 123 km into the recorded legs you reach Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. Next is Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner.
On a gentle rise above the Seine at Poissy, set back from the road in a meadow ringed by trees, a white box floats on thin columns. Villa Savoye is perhaps the most famous house of the twentieth century, designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret for a wealthy family as a weekend retreat and completed in 1931. It is the purest built expression of Le Corbusier's five points of a new architecture: pilotis, a free plan, a free façade, horizontal ribbon windows and a roof garden. Since 2016 it has been part of the World Heritage site of his architectural work, along with the small gardener's lodge at the entrance, a miniature echo of the main house.
Read the complete Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner, about halfway. Next is back through Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France sits at 232 km, about halfway. Next is back through Palace and Park of Fontainebleau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palace and Park of Fontainebleau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Palace and Park of Fontainebleau comes up about 248 km into the recorded legs. Next is Provins.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Provins write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Provins closes the day.
Provins → Palace and Park of Fontainebleau is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palace and Park of Fontainebleau → Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France → Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner → back through Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France → back through Palace and Park of Fontainebleau is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Palace and Park of Fontainebleau → Provins is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.