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.
386 km from Meyrueis to Meyrueis, about 6 h 45 of riding. On the way it passes Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc, Arc de triomphe and back through Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Most visitors to the Cévennes come for the gorges, but the real character of this country lies on top of them. The causses are high limestone plateaus, treeless and wind-scoured, where sheep have grazed for millennia and the horizon runs on for fifty kilometres. Cut deep into them are the gorges of the Tarn and the Jonte, with their cliffs and caves, and to the east the Cévennes mountains rise in ridges of schist and chestnut forest. The whole area is listed by UNESCO as a cultural landscape of Mediterranean agriculture and pastoralism, and much of it falls within the Cévennes National Park, set up in 1970.
Read the complete The Causses and the Cévennes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Causses and the Cévennes is where the day begins. Next is Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc.
In December 1994, three cavers felt a draught coming from a pile of rocks above the Ardèche gorge, dug their way in and found themselves in a cave that nobody had entered for thousands of years. On the walls were lions, rhinoceroses, mammoths, horses and bears, drawn with a mastery that changed what we thought we knew about early art. The paintings of the Chauvet cave, named after one of the trio, Jean-Marie Chauvet, are around thirty-six thousand years old, roughly twice the age of Lascaux. The original cave is sealed to protect it, but a full-scale replica, the Grotte Chauvet 2, opened nearby in 2015.
Read the complete Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Arc de triomphe.
Orange is a Provençal town of thirty thousand on the edge of the Rhône plain, and it has two of the finest Roman monuments in Europe. The first is the triumphal arch, standing on the old Via Agrippa at the northern entrance to the town, built in the time of Augustus and later dedicated to Tiberius. It is covered in carved reliefs of battles, naval trophies and captured Gauls, celebrating the victories of the legions, and despite two thousand years of wind and traffic, the carvings remain impressive. The second is the Roman theatre, with its stage wall still standing intact, more than a hundred metres long and over thirty high. Louis XIV is said to have called it the finest wall in his kingdom. In summer, the theatre hosts the Chorégies, an opera festival with performances under the stars. Both monuments were listed by UNESCO in 1981.
Read the complete Arc de triomphe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 192 km into the recorded legs you reach Arc de triomphe. Next is back through Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc, late in the day. Next is The Causses and the Cévennes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Causses and the Cévennes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Causses and the Cévennes. That is the ride.
The Causses and the Cévennes → Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc is 131 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc → Arc de triomphe is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Arc de triomphe → back through Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc → The Causses and the Cévennes is 131 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.