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SPORTOURIX RIDE

Sainte-Marguerite island explore

Easy 10.19 km +138 m ascent Cannes, France
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  1. 1 0.0km The landing side Allée de Ceinture Sud. Sea on your right, the Esterel behind it on the mainland. not filmed
  2. 2 1.1km Right at the water The south shore at its closest — eighteen metres from the sea, ten above it. 8:51
  3. 3 1.6km Pointe Carbonel The island’s south-east cape, seventeen metres from the water with two benches at the path’s edge — the view that opens up around 14:30 in the video. 14:39
  4. 4 2.1km Eastern point The path turns back west as the Chemin de la Ceinture Nord, facing Cannes across the channel. 20:48
  5. 5 2.3km Batterie de la Convention A guardhouse battery on the eastern shore, sixteen metres off the path. German blockhouses sit in the pines just behind it. 24:17
  6. 6 2.6km Picnic table on the shore Nine metres from the water, the closest the north-east shore comes to it. A picnic table sits just off the path. 27:59
  7. 7 3.4km North shore, water’s edge Fourteen metres from the sea, with the channel and the city beyond. 36:58
  8. 8 3.6km Away from the sea The path swings inland through the pines — over a hundred metres from the water, the furthest it gets on the northern half of the island. A picnic clearing sits just off it, with a board explaining the Chemin de la Ceinture Nord. 39:48
  9. 9 4.1km Steps down to the water A stairway off the path down to the sea. The track drops from ten metres to under six, waits at the bottom, and climbs back the same way — a two-and-a-half minute detour from 46:15. 46:15
  10. 10 4.4km Shore by the old cemeteries Eight metres from the sea and a beach at the path’s edge. Sixty metres inland stand the Crimean War graves — thirty tombs around an 1893 column raised for soldiers who died here in 1856 of wounds from the front, when Fort Royal served as their hospital. A Muslim cemetery lies just beyond. 50:45
  11. 11 4.8km La Guérite A Mediterranean restaurant and private beach right on the path, open through the summer season and reached by its own boat from Port Canto. The Chemin de la Guérite carries the same name. 56:01
  12. 12 5.8km Into the fort The entrance to Fort Royal, twenty-four metres up — begun under Richelieu, rebuilt by Vauban, and the reason the island has a moat path at all. 1:09:16
  13. 13 6.3km The moat path, 34 m Chemin des Douves, the high point of the walk. Everything below is sea level by comparison. 1:16:59
  14. 14 6.4km Iron Mask museum Entrance to the Musée du Masque de fer et du Fort Royal, built around the cell that held the masked prisoner from 1687. 1:18:10
  15. 15 8.2km West end, at the sea Seven metres from the water and four above it — the closest the path comes to the sea anywhere on the walk. not filmed
  16. 16 8.4km Étang du Batéguier The western end, under five metres. The path bends around the salt lagoon rather than crossing it. not filmed
  17. 17 10.2km Where the recording stops The GPS stops here, by the island hamlet — a kilometre short of the point it started from. The last stretch back along the south shore is not in the track. not filmed

About the route

Sainte-Marguerite is the larger of the two Lérins islands, a kilometre off Cannes and a short ferry from the old port. Three kilometres long, under one wide, no cars and barely any residents. This is a full lap of it, walked anticlockwise: 10.2 km, two hours on the move and half an hour of standing about.

What the camera missed

The video covers the first two thirds and then stops. Filmed: from 0.3 km to 6.45 km, which is the south shore, the eastern point, the north side, the climb and the top of the fort. Not filmed: the descent from the fort, the whole western end with the lagoon, and the return leg — 6.45 to 7.43 km and everything after 8 km.

The map does not stop, though. Drag the dot into those stretches and the readings carry on; the player steps aside and tells you the camera was off.

About the numbers

Distance, height and heart rate come off the watch untouched. The 138 m of ascent is smoothed before it is summed — a barometer left raw counts its own noise as climbing. Average speed is over moving time only. Nearly a quarter of the route sits above twenty metres, and that quarter carries essentially all of the climbing.

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Clock
Track
Speed
Heart
Elevation
Distance
Ride stats from the GPS track
Distance10.19km
Moving time2:01
Avg speed4.5km/h
Max speed7km/h
Ascent138m
Descent139m
Elevation2–34m
Avg heart rate103bpm
Max heart rate144bpm
Source data 2 files
  • track.gpx 1683 KB track as GPX with timestamps and heart rate
  • activity.fit 224 KB raw recording from the watch