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.
From Paris it runs 225 km to Paris; allow about 3 h 41 of riding. The stops in between: Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner, Chartres Cathedral and back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 89 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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.
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chartres Cathedral.
You see Chartres from miles away across the wheat. The Beauce is a vast, flat plain, one of the great granaries of France, and the cathedral rises out of it with two mismatched spires, like a ship on a green sea. After a fire in 1194 destroyed most of the earlier church, the townspeople rebuilt it in about thirty years, a remarkable pace for the time, and as a result the building has a unity that few Gothic cathedrals can claim. It was one of the first sites to be added to the UNESCO list, in 1979.
Read the complete Chartres Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Chartres Cathedral. Next is back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner, late in the day. Next is 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 at Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. That is the ride.
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France → Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner → Chartres Cathedral is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Chartres Cathedral → back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner → Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.