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 195 km one-way ride from near Manosque, about 3 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Valensole, Moustiers Sainte Marie and Sault. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 21 km this is Provence Lavender Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Manosque is the gateway to the high country of Provence, a lively market town on the Durance river with old walls, two surviving medieval gates and a hilltop of tiled roofs. The writer Jean Giono was born here in 1895 and lived in the area nearly all his life, and his novels, in which hills, shepherds and wind take the leading roles, brought the landscape of Haute-Provence to a wide readership. The town is also the home of L'Occitane, the cosmetics company that grew out of a small workshop distilling lavender and rosemary in the 1970s, and you will see its fragrance in many shop windows.
Read the complete Manosque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Manosque is where the day begins. Next is Valensole.
The Valensole plateau is the Provence of the posters, and in the right fortnight it lives up to them. Rows of lavender, planted in precise lines that follow the curves of the land, stretch across a high, wind-scoured tableland at around six hundred metres, between the Verdon gorge to the north and the valley of the Durance to the south, with the village of Valensole in the middle. In the second half of June and through July, the fields turn a deep violet, the air is loud with bees and the scent is so strong it seems to settle on your jacket.
Read the complete Valensole write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Valensole comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Moustiers Sainte Marie.
Seen from below, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie looks like it has been wedged into a crack in the cliff. A pair of limestone crags rise above the village, and between them hangs a star on a long chain, a golden ornament that has been renewed many times since the legend of a knight who vowed to hang one there after returning safely from the Crusades. The story is probably more charming than historical, but it gives the place its signature image, and you can see the star glinting from the road on a bright day.
Read the complete Moustiers Sainte Marie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Moustiers Sainte Marie. Next is Sault.
On a hot July afternoon, Sault is the best place in Provence to understand why people write poems about lavender. The village sits on a rocky spur at about 750 metres, on the edge of the great plateau that runs between Mont Ventoux and the Luberon hills, and in the weeks of the bloom, from late June to late July, the fields around it turn violet in long, curved lines up to the horizon. The smell is overwhelming on warm days, sweet, resinous and slightly medicinal, and bees fill the air. The villagers hold a lavender festival every year on 15 August, with processions, markets and music.
Read the complete Sault write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sault, late in the day. Next is Gordes.
Gordes clings to the edge of a limestone cliff on the western side of the Luberon, its tiers of pale stone houses stacked beneath a castle like a nativity scene, and it has the kind of looks that make strangers stop their cars in the middle of the road. The view across the valley toward the Vaucluse mountains is wide and golden, and in the late afternoon the stone takes on a warm honey colour. It is a village of around two thousand, and for much of the year, it is overrun with visitors, so the experience improves dramatically if you arrive early or stay late.
Read the complete Gordes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Gordes. That is the ride.
Manosque → Valensole is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Valensole → Moustiers Sainte Marie is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Moustiers Sainte Marie → Sault is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sault → Gordes is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.