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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
302 km from Brugge to Brugge, about 5 h 12 of riding. On the way it passes Beffroi de Bergues, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque, Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul. It crosses from Belgium into France - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Bruges was rich before it was pretty. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was one of the great trading ports of northern Europe, a place where merchants from Italy, Spain, the Hanseatic towns and England bought wool, cloth, spices and silver, and where the first stock-exchange-like dealings took place in a square named after a family called Van der Beurse. Then the channel to the sea silted up, trade moved to Antwerp, and the city went into a long sleep that preserved its medieval centre almost intact. A Belgian writer called it the dead city, and the label stuck for a century.
Read the complete Bruges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bruges is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de Bergues.
Bergues found a new kind of fame in 2008, when the comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, filmed here, became one of the most successful French films of all time, and suddenly the whole country wanted to see the town where a postman from the south is exiled to the cold north and ends up falling in love with it. The film's best-known scenes include the belfry, from which the hero rings the carillon, and the town still welcomes visitors who come in search of the locations. But Bergues was a proud place long before cinema arrived. It is a small fortified town in French Flanders, surrounded by ramparts and canals, with fortifications improved by Vauban in the seventeenth century.
Read the complete Beffroi de Bergues write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Bergues comes up about 83 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque.
The tower of Dunkirk's town hall rises above the centre of a city rebuilt from the ruins of the Second World War, a brick and stone belfry that is part of the World Heritage Site of the Belfries of Belgium and France. Belfries were symbols of civic freedom in the medieval towns of Flanders and northern France, housing bells and sometimes the town's charters, and they stood as proud counterparts to church towers. Dunkirk actually has two listed belfries, the town hall tower and the separate Saint-Éloi belfry beside the church, a reminder of how much these towns valued their bells.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque. Next is Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque.
The belfry of Saint-Éloi stands alone, which is odd for a church tower. It was originally attached to the church, but after fires and rebuilding in earlier centuries, a street was cut between them, and the tower became a separate landmark. Today it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO, and its carillon plays tunes across the centre of Dunkirk, including a local song. You can climb to the top for views over the port, the city and the North Sea.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul.
Bailleul sits in French Flanders, so close to the Belgian border that you can hear Flemish place names on every signpost, and its town hall belfry, rising over the main square with a pointed spire and a carillon, looks every bit as Flemish as the towers of Ypres or Bruges. Like much of the town, it is a rebuilding: Bailleul was almost entirely destroyed in the spring of 1918, during the German offensive in Flanders, and was reconstructed in the 1920s in a neo-Flemish style of brick, stepped gables and decorative stonework. The belfry is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque comes up about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 209 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque. Next is back through Beffroi de Bergues.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Bergues write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de Bergues, late in the day. Next is Bruges.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bruges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 302 km.
Bruges → Beffroi de Bergues is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Beffroi de Bergues → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul → back through Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque → back through Beffroi de Bergues is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Bergues → Bruges is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.