Why this ride
A 319 km round trip from Beaune - roughly 4 h 37 in the saddle. It goes by way of Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans, Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux and back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The Climats and Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 319 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 37
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans → Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux
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 69 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 63 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The Climats
The Climats of Burgundy are, in plain terms, the vineyard plots of the Côte d'Or, each one with its own name and character, worked and described by monks and growers for nearly a thousand years. The word means little parcels of land with a specific soil, slope and exposure, and the idea is that two vines a few metres apart can yield wines that taste different. Near Ladoix-Serrigny and Beaune the slope faces east and south-east, and the great hill of Corton rises above the villages, covered in vines and crowned with woods.
Read the complete The Climats write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Climats is where the day begins. Next is Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans.
2. Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux wanted to build an ideal city, and he started with a salt factory. The Saline Royale at Arc-et-Senans was built between 1775 and 1779 on the orders of Louis XV's administration, to boil brine into salt, and Ledoux designed it as a perfect half circle of buildings around the director's house, with the workers, the boiling halls and the management all arranged in a geometric order meant to express reason, hierarchy and efficiency. It never grew into the full circular city he imagined, but what was built is astonishing, and it was listed by UNESCO in 1982, later joined by the great saltworks at Salins-les-Bains.
Read the complete Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux.
3. Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux
The Jura plateau behind Clairvaux-les-Lacs is a country of limestone, cows and lakes, and the Grand Lac de Clairvaux is the largest of the lakes that give the town its name. Prehistoric people lived on its shore on pilings, in villages that rose and fell for centuries, and the waterlogged mud preserved their wood and tools. The sites on Clairvaux's lakes are among the pile-dwelling places inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2011. The lake today is a quiet blue sheet, ringed by reeds and low wooded hills, with a beach where families swim in July.
Read the complete Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 159 km into the recorded legs you reach Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux. Next is back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans.
4. back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans, late in the day. Next is The Climats.
5. The Climats
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Climats write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at The Climats. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
The Climats to Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans
The Climats → Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans to Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux
Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans → Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux to back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans
Le Grand Lac de Clairvaux → back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans to The Climats
back through Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans → The Climats is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.