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 388 km to Salins-les-Bains; allow about 5 h 55 of riding. The stops in between: Baie de Clendy, Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman and back through Baie de Clendy. 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. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 106 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for 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 Baie de Clendy.
At the southern tip of Lake Neuchâtel, just east of Yverdon-les-Bains, the shore curves into a shallow bay fringed with reeds, poplars and a beach where local families swim in summer. Behind it, in a meadow, stands a double row of tall grey stones. These are the menhirs of Clendy, raised by Neolithic farmers more than five thousand years ago and re-erected in the twentieth century after they were found toppled in the ground. Offshore and along the bay lie the remains of lakeside settlements of the same era, part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Baie de Clendy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baie de Clendy comes up about 87 km into the recorded legs. Next is Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman.
On the French shore of Lake Geneva, just across the border from Switzerland, the village of Chens-sur-Léman sits among fields and woods above the water. Along its shoreline, at places such as Tougues and Les Grèves, the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings lie in the shallow water, and they are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage site. On calm days, when the water is clear and low, it is sometimes possible to see the stumps of ancient wooden piles sticking out of the lakebed, a quiet reminder of the people who lived here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 193 km into the recorded legs you reach Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman. Next is back through Baie de Clendy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baie de Clendy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Baie de Clendy, late in the day. 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.
Back at Saline de Salins-les-Bains. That is the ride.
Saline de Salins-les-Bains → Baie de Clendy is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Baie de Clendy → Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Littoral de Chens-sur-Léman → back through Baie de Clendy is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Baie de Clendy → Saline de Salins-les-Bains is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.