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.
259 km from Amiens to Amiens, about 5 h 04 of riding. On the way it passes Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de, Beffroi de Saint-Riquier, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin and Terril 244. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 39 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Amiens Cathedral is huge. Built mostly in the thirteenth century, Notre-Dame d'Amiens is the largest Gothic cathedral in France by interior volume, with a nave rising over forty metres, and its west front is covered with hundreds of carved figures, saints, prophets and kings, which were once brightly painted. In summer, a light show projects the original colours onto the facade at night, bringing back the medieval look. The cathedral is a World Heritage Site, and its interior, with its soaring columns and stained glass, is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture.
Read the complete Amiens Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Amiens Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de.
On 26 March 1918, with the German spring offensive smashing through the British lines and threatening to split the Allied armies apart, French and British leaders met in the town hall of Doullens, a small town on the river Authie, north of Amiens. In a room on the first floor, they agreed to give the French general Ferdinand Foch the coordination of all Allied forces on the Western Front, a decision that many historians see as a turning point of the war. The room, now known as the Salle du Commandement Unique, can still be visited, with a stained glass window commemorating the meeting. The belfry of the old town hall, a solid tower from the late Middle Ages, is part of the UNESCO group of belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de Saint-Riquier.
Saint-Riquier is a small village in the Somme, a few kilometres from Abbeville, and it punches far above its weight. In the early Middle Ages it was the site of Centula, one of the most important monasteries of the Carolingian empire, ruled by Angilbert, a courtier and son-in-law of Charlemagne, who made it a centre of learning and prayer with hundreds of monks. The great abbey church you see today is later, a Gothic building with a richly carved facade, but the scale of the place still reflects that history. The belfry, a solid square tower in the village, was a symbol of the townspeople's rights and is one of the belfries listed by UNESCO in Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de Saint-Riquier write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de Saint-Riquier. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
Hesdin is a small market town in the green valley of the Canche, in the Pas-de-Calais, and it owes its existence to an act of destruction. The original town, a few kilometres upstream, was razed in 1553 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and a new fortified town was built here the following year as a strongpoint on the frontier between France and the Habsburg Netherlands. The grid of streets and the large market square still follow that plan. On the square stands the town hall, a former palace of the Habsburg governors, with a beautifully carved Renaissance balcony from which proclamations were read, and its belfry is part of the UNESCO list of belfries in Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, about halfway. Next is Terril 244.
Way out at the western tip of the coalfield, near the villages of Mametz and Norrent-Fontes, Terril 244 marks the place where coal mining reached its limit. Beyond it, the land belongs to farmers, and the next towns, Aire-sur-la-Lys and Saint-Omer, have more to do with canals, marshes and markets than with mines. The heap stands as a solitary landmark in the fields, smaller than the giants further east, and its green-covered slopes blend into the landscape. It is one of the outlying components of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin listed by UNESCO, a reminder that the coalfield stretched for over a hundred kilometres from the Belgian border to here.
Read the complete Terril 244 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril 244 sits at 156 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin comes up about 165 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Beffroi de Saint-Riquier.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Saint-Riquier write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 196 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Beffroi de Saint-Riquier. Next is back through Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de, late in the day. Next is Amiens Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Amiens Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 259 km.
Amiens Cathedral → Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de → Beffroi de Saint-Riquier is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Saint-Riquier → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → Terril 244 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 244 → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → back through Beffroi de Saint-Riquier is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Saint-Riquier → back through Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de → Amiens Cathedral is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.