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 Salins-les-Bains it runs 354 km to Salins-les-Bains; allow about 6 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Lac de Chalain, Bourg, Le Crêt de Chatillon and back through Bourg. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from France into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
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 72 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Salt built Salins-les-Bains, and the name gives it away. A salt spring, rich in brine, rises in this narrow valley in the Jura, and people have been boiling it for salt since Roman times or earlier. In the Middle Ages the saltworks were among the largest in the region, and the spring made the town and its lords rich. The Grande Saline, the great saltworks, is now a museum, and together with the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, the neoclassical complex designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, it has been listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Saline de Salins-les-Bains write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Saline de Salins-les-Bains is where the day begins. Next is Lac de Chalain.
Lac de Chalain is the largest natural lake in the French Jura, a long, green-blue lake set in a valley among forested limestone cliffs, and its shores were home to farming villages built on piles thousands of years ago. The remains of these villages, preserved in the lake bed, are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011. In the 1900s, when the lake level was lowered for a hydroelectric project, a dugout canoe and the remains of houses were found, and excavations since then have revealed a remarkable picture of life in the Neolithic.
Read the complete Lac de Chalain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lac de Chalain comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bourg.
Geneva's lake shore is not the only place where Switzerland feels close at hand, and the stretch north of the city, around Versoix, is one of the quietest. Versoix itself is a calm, lakeside town with a little harbour, a long promenade and a medieval-looking centre, and it is easy to forget how close the French border is.
Read the complete Bourg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Bourg. Next is Le Crêt de Chatillon.
The Crêt de Châtillon is the summit of the Semnoz, the long wooded mountain that rises above the western shore of Lake Annecy, and from the top, at around 1,700 metres, the view on a clear day is one of the finest in the French Alps: the whole lake below, the Bauges and the Aravis around, and, to the east, Mont Blanc in all its glory. Sites with names like Châtillon and Les Mongets along this shore preserve the remains of villages built on the edge of the lake thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Le Crêt de Chatillon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Le Crêt de Chatillon, about halfway. Next is back through Bourg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bourg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bourg sits at 235 km, about halfway. Next is back through Lac de Chalain.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lac de Chalain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lac de Chalain comes up about 319 km into the recorded legs. Next is Saline de Salins-les-Bains.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Saline de Salins-les-Bains write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Saline de Salins-les-Bains closes the day.
Saline de Salins-les-Bains → Lac de Chalain is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lac de Chalain → Bourg is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bourg → Le Crêt de Chatillon is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Le Crêt de Chatillon → back through Bourg is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bourg → back through Lac de Chalain is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Lac de Chalain → Saline de Salins-les-Bains is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.