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.
A 397 km round trip from Strasbourg - roughly 5 h 21 in the saddle. The stops in between: La place forte de Neuf-Brisach, Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp and back through La place forte de Neuf-Brisach. The line favours views over speed.
108 km on Route des Vins d'Alsace.
Strasbourg sits where the Rhine, France and Germany come together, and the city has been passed back and forth between them for centuries. It was a free imperial city, then French from 1681, German from 1871 to 1918, French again, German again in the Second World War, and French since 1944. The history is written into the city, in the half-timbered houses of the Petite France quarter with their steep roofs, in the German-built Neustadt and the Palais du Rhin, in the language, Alsatian, which is a Germanic dialect still spoken by older residents, and in the food, with sauerkraut, tarte flambée and Riesling. Today the city is also the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.
Read the complete Strasbourg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Strasbourg is where the day begins. Next is La place forte de Neuf-Brisach.
After the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, France had to give the fortress of Breisach, on the right bank of the Rhine, back to the Habsburgs, and Louis XIV needed a new stronghold to guard the river. His engineer Vauban designed it from scratch on an empty plain on the left bank: Neuf-Brisach, a perfect octagon of walls, bastions and moats, with a grid of streets inside and a large central square with a church and a parade ground. Built between 1698 and the early eighteenth century, it was Vauban's last great work and is often considered his masterpiece. It is one of the twelve groups of Fortifications of Vauban, listed by UNESCO in 2008.
Read the complete La place forte de Neuf-Brisach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La place forte de Neuf-Brisach comes up about 91 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp.
Notre-Dame-du-Haut sits on a hill above Ronchamp, at the foot of the Vosges, and it is one of the strangest and most beautiful buildings of the twentieth century. Le Corbusier designed it in the early 1950s and it was consecrated in 1955. The white walls curve and lean, the roof sweeps up like a hull or a hat, and the thick walls are pierced by small deep windows filled with coloured glass. Inside, light falls in coloured pools on the floor, and the whole room feels carved rather than built. There has been a pilgrim chapel on this hill for centuries, and the earlier church was destroyed in the war, which is what led to the commission.
Read the complete Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 199 km into the recorded legs you reach Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp. Next is back through La place forte de Neuf-Brisach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La place forte de Neuf-Brisach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La place forte de Neuf-Brisach, late in the day. Next is Strasbourg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Strasbourg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Strasbourg. That is the ride.
Strasbourg → La place forte de Neuf-Brisach is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
La place forte de Neuf-Brisach → Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp → back through La place forte de Neuf-Brisach is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through La place forte de Neuf-Brisach → Strasbourg is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.