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 Morges it runs 318 km to Morges; allow about 4 h 59 of riding. The stops in between: The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, Baie de Clendy, Les Grèves and Bahnhof. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Lavaux Vineyard Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
On a calm morning the lake off Morges is as flat as polished pewter, with the Savoy Alps on the far shore and Mont Blanc floating above them, and it is hard to believe that anyone ever had to fight for this view. Yet people have been living right here for millennia. Just off the shore, in the shallow water near the town, lie the remains of prehistoric villages built on piles, the Stations de Morges, one of the Swiss components of the UNESCO Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Divers and archaeologists have mapped wooden posts and objects from the Bronze Age, but from the shore you will see only water, swans and the occasional paddleboarder.
Read the complete Stations de Morges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stations de Morges is where the day begins. Next is The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier.
On the shore of Lake Geneva at Corseaux, just west of Vevey, stands a low white house, long and narrow, with a single strip window running along its lakeside facade. It looks modest, almost plain, but it is one of the key buildings of modern architecture. Le Corbusier, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss Jura, designed it in the early 1920s for his parents, and the Villa Le Lac, also called the Petite Maison, was an early demonstration of his ideas: a ribbon window framing the view, a roof garden, an open plan. Since 2016 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, which includes seventeen sites in seven countries.
Read the complete The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Baie de Clendy. Next is Les Grèves.
Reeds, mostly. That is the first thing you notice when you roll down to Les Grèves on the southern shore of Lake Neuchâtel: a soft wall of reed and willow between the fields and the water, with the Jura sitting long and blue on the far side of the lake. This stretch between Portalban, Gletterens and Chevroux belongs to the Grande Cariçaie, the biggest lakeshore marsh in Switzerland, and it only exists because people once moved an entire lake level.
Read the complete Les Grèves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les Grèves, about halfway. Next is Bahnhof.
The label says only "Bahnhof", which is a nicely Swiss joke, because the real attraction here is not a station at all but the south shore of Lake Biel between Täuffelen, Gerolfingen and Lüscherz. This is the Seeland, a low, fertile plain between the lakes, and the villages along the shore are surrounded by vegetable fields, orchards and vineyards on the gentle slopes. Like the shores of Lake Neuchâtel to the south, this lake edge was home to prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and several sites around Lake Biel form part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The finds, from pottery to wooden tools, tell of farming communities that lived here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Bahnhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bahnhof sits at 155 km, about halfway. Next is back through Les Grèves.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Grèves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Les Grèves comes up about 199 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 229 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Baie de Clendy. Next is back through The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, late in the day. Next is Stations de Morges.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stations de Morges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 318 km.
Stations de Morges → The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier → Baie de Clendy is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baie de Clendy → Les Grèves is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Grèves → Bahnhof is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bahnhof → back through Les Grèves is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Grèves → back through Baie de Clendy is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baie de Clendy → back through The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier → Stations de Morges is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.