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.
From Bergues it runs 158 km to Bergues; allow about 2 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of Landhuis met Belfort, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque, Beffroi de Gravelines and back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Landhuis met Belfort.
Veurne's market square is one of the most complete in Flanders, and the old Landhuis, with its belfry rising behind it, is the reason. The Landhuis was the seat of the castellany, the regional administration that governed the surrounding countryside, and its belfry is part of the group of Belgian and French belfries protected by UNESCO. Around the square stand the town hall, the old meat hall and a row of gabled houses, many dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when Veurne was under Spanish rule, which explains the stepped gables and ornate facades.
Read the complete Landhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Landhuis met Belfort comes up about 27 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 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque. Next is Beffroi de Gravelines.
Gravelines sits right where the river Aa meets the Channel, between Calais and Dunkirk, and it still wears its walls. The town is wrapped in Vauban-era fortifications, a star of brick ramparts, bastions and water-filled moats that you can walk or ride around, and in the middle of it rises the belfry, one of the towers listed by UNESCO among the belfries of northern France and Belgium. It is a solid, sober tower rather than a showpiece, built to watch, warn and ring the hours for a frontier town that changed hands more than once.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gravelines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Gravelines, about halfway. 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.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque sits at 105 km, about halfway. Next is back through Landhuis met Belfort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Landhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Landhuis met Belfort comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Beffroi de Bergues closes the day.
Beffroi de Bergues → Landhuis met Belfort is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Landhuis met Belfort → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque → Beffroi de Gravelines is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Gravelines → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque is 25 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 Landhuis met Belfort is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Landhuis met Belfort → Beffroi de Bergues is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.