CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
From Grasse it runs 589 km to Grasse; allow about 10 h 51 of riding. The stops in between: Castellane, Verdon balcony road, Lake Sainte-Croix and Antibes. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from France into Italy - carry ID and check the toll rules. It keeps close to the shore for long stretches.
For 22 km this is Gorges du Verdon, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
76 km on Route des Grandes Alpes.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
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 fuel is where the day begins. Next is Castellane food.
Castellane sits at the bottom of a bowl, with a huge limestone rock standing over it like a stopper. The rock, simply called le Roc, rises about a hundred and eighty metres above the old town, and a small pilgrimage chapel, Notre-Dame du Roc, perches on top, reached by a steep path through the pines. The town lies on the Verdon river a little upstream of the great canyon, and it has been a gateway to this country for as long as there have been roads.
Read the complete Castellane food write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castellane food is where this day stops to eat. Next is Verdon balcony road.
The Verdon is a canyon for people who thought they had seen canyons. The river has cut a gorge through the limestone of Haute Provence, some twenty-five kilometres long, with cliffs that rise as much as seven hundred metres above the green water at the bottom, and the roads that run along the rims give you ridiculous views. This stretch, between Castellane and the area of Point Sublime, runs along the northern edge, and the balcony viewpoints along the road look down into a crack in the earth that appears to have no floor.
Read the complete Verdon balcony road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
87 km in you reach Verdon balcony road. Next is Lake Sainte-Croix.
This is where the Verdon stops being a canyon and becomes a lake. At the western end of the gorge, a dam was built in the early 1970s at Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, and the water backed up through the valleys behind it to form the Lac de Sainte-Croix, a sheet of vivid turquoise about ten kilometres long that fills the end of the canyon and laps against the Valensole plateau. The village of Les Salles-sur-Verdon was drowned when the water rose, and the people were moved to a new settlement built higher on the shore; in very dry years, old walls and fields are said to emerge from the water.
Read the complete Lake Sainte-Croix write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lake Sainte-Croix, early in the day. Next is Back to Grasse fuel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grasse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Grasse fuel. That is the ride. Next is Lac de Sainte-Croix Swim Ride.
Old ramparts rise straight from the sea at Antibes, and behind them a tight knot of lanes, markets and ochre houses climbs toward a castle on the shore. The town sits between Nice and Cannes on the bay of the same name, facing the snowy line of the Alps on clear winter days, with the long wooded peninsula of Cap d'Antibes to the south and the jazz town of Juan-les-Pins on its western flank.
Read the complete Antibes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lac de Sainte-Croix Swim Ride is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is High point near Cannes.
261 km in you reach High point near Cannes. Next is Lac de Sainte-Croix Swim Ride checkpoint 8.
Finish at Lac de Sainte-Croix Swim Ride checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Scenic stretch near Carros.
Scenic stretch near Carros sits at 348 km, about halfway. Next is Photo stop near Saint-Martin-Vésubie.
Photo stop near Saint-Martin-Vésubie comes up 392 km in. Next is Nice / Côte d’Azur return.
435 km in you reach Nice / Côte d’Azur return. Next is Lac de Sainte-Croix Swim Ride food stop.
Palms, pastel houses and a bay that faces due south: Ospedaletti is the Riviera dei Fiori at its most relaxed, a small Ligurian town tucked between Sanremo and Bordighera with its feet in the sea and terraced hills behind it. The old coast railway has been moved inland into a tunnel, and its former line along the shore is now a cycle and walking path, so the seafront is quieter than you might expect on such a crowded coast.
Read the complete Ospedaletti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 479 km in. Next is Back to Lac de.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grasse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Lac de closes the day.
Grasse fuel → Castellane food is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castellane food → Verdon balcony road is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Verdon balcony road → Lake Sainte-Croix is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lake Sainte-Croix → Back to Grasse fuel is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Back to Grasse fuel → Antibes is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Cannes → La Colle-sur-Loup is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Carros → Photo stop near Saint-Martin-Vésubie is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Saint-Martin-Vésubie → Near San Remo, on the way back is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.