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 138 km one-way ride from near Vallauris, about 2 h 33 of riding. The stops in between: Grasse and Castellane. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 22 km this is Route Napoleon, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Napoleon came ashore here. On 1 March 1815 he landed at Golfe-Juan with around a thousand men after escaping from Elba, and this beach, now a yacht harbour and a row of seafront restaurants, is where the Hundred Days began. From here he set off up through Grasse, Castellane, Digne, Sisteron, Gap and Grenoble, on a route that became the Route Napoléon and is still marked with little eagle signs along the way.
Read the complete Golfe Juan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Golfe Juan is where the day begins. Next is Grasse.
Grasse smells of something before you can see it. The old perfume capital of France climbs a steep limestone hillside about a dozen kilometres from the Mediterranean, high enough above Cannes to catch a cooler, more mountain air, and for generations the fields of jasmine, rose and tuberose on the terraces around the town fed its distilleries. Perfume came here from the leather trade: glovemakers in the seventeenth century began scenting their gloves, and the business outgrew the leather. Today the town still has big perfume houses and a handful of working fields, and in May the rose harvest and in late summer the jasmine are the times to be around.
Read the complete Grasse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grasse comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castellane.
Castellane sits at the bottom of a rock, and the rock is the point. The town, at a little over seven hundred metres in the valley of the Verdon, is overlooked by a limestone crag nearly two hundred metres high, with a small chapel on top, Notre-Dame du Roc, which has been a pilgrimage site for centuries. A steep path climbs to it in about half an hour, and the view over the town's red roofs, the river and the surrounding mountains is superb. The town itself is small, with about sixteen hundred people, but it feels bigger in summer, when visitors fill the cafés.
Read the complete Castellane write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Castellane. Next is Digne les Bains.
Digne-les-Bains is a town of nineteen thousand people at the heart of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a place with an unusual mixture of attractions. It lies in a wide valley at the meeting of several rivers, surrounded by mountains, and its hot springs have drawn visitors since Roman times. The thermal baths are still open. The town is the capital of lavender country, and each August the Corso de la Lavande fills the streets with floats decorated with the flowers. The scent of lavender is everywhere in summer, from the fields that cover the plateaus around.
Read the complete Digne-les-Bains write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Digne les Bains closes the day.
Golfe Juan → Grasse is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grasse → Castellane is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castellane → Digne les Bains is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.