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 189 km round trip from Nîmes - roughly 3 h 10 in the saddle. It goes by way of Pont du Gard, Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the and back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows Pont du Gard → Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace for 29 km.
Most Roman temples survive as a jumble of columns and a lot of imagination. The Maison Carrée in Nîmes is the exception: a complete temple, standing on its podium with its roof and columns intact, two thousand years after it was built for the grandsons of Augustus. It owes its survival to being constantly reused, as a meeting hall, a stable, a church and a museum. Thomas Jefferson admired it so much that he based the Virginia State Capitol on it, and in 2023 UNESCO finally listed it in its own right.
Read the complete The Maison Carrée of Nîmes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Maison Carrée of Nîmes is where the day begins. Next is Pont du Gard.
Built without mortar, three tiers of arches carry a water channel across the gorge of the Gardon nearly fifty metres above the river, and the stones still fit together as if they had been placed last week. The Pont du Gard was one section of an aqueduct some fifty kilometres long that brought spring water from near Uzès to Roman Nîmes in the first century, with a total drop of only a few metres over the whole distance. It is a masterpiece of surveying as much as building, and it has stood through floods that have destroyed far younger bridges.
Read the complete Pont du Gard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pont du Gard comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace.
For most of the fourteenth century, the popes lived in Avignon rather than Rome. In 1309, Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, settled here to escape the turmoil of Italian politics, and his successors built a vast palace, the Palais des Papes, the largest Gothic palace in Europe, with massive walls, towers and halls, more fortress than residence. Seven popes reigned here until 1377, when the papacy returned to Rome, and then rival popes continued to rule from Avignon during the Great Schism. The palace, the cathedral, the ramparts and the famous bridge, the Pont Saint-Bénézet, were listed by UNESCO in 1995.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace. Next is Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the.
Orange has one of the best Roman theatres still standing anywhere, and what makes it special is the stage wall. It is a tall, plain facade, thirty-seven metres high and more than a hundred metres long, which in most other theatres has fallen or been taken apart for stone. Here it survives, and Louis XIV is supposed to have called it the finest wall in his kingdom. The theatre was built in the first century, under Augustus or soon after, and a statue of the emperor still stands in the central niche. The nearby triumphal arch, on the edge of town, is also Roman and also in good shape. UNESCO listed the theatre and arch together in 1981.
Read the complete Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace sits at 109 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pont du Gard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pont du Gard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pont du Gard comes up about 154 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Maison Carrée of Nîmes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Maison Carrée of Nîmes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Maison Carrée of Nîmes closes the day.
The Maison Carrée of Nîmes → Pont du Gard is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pont du Gard → Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace → Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the → back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace → back through Pont du Gard is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pont du Gard → The Maison Carrée of Nîmes is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.