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.
From Doullens it runs 336 km to Doullens; allow about 5 h 24 of riding. The stops in between: Beffroi de Saint-Riquier, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, Beffroi de Rue and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Beffroi de Saint-Riquier comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin. Next is Beffroi de Rue.
Rue is a small town of three thousand people that used to be a seaport, and the belfry in the middle of it is one of the reasons it still feels more important than its size suggests. Over centuries the Baie de Somme silted up and the sea pulled back, leaving Rue stranded a few kilometres inland among salt meadows and polders, but the stone tower that once watched the harbour still stands over the square. It is part of the group of belfries of Belgium and northern France on the UNESCO list, symbols of civic freedom built by towns that wanted the world to know they governed themselves.
Read the complete Beffroi de Rue write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Rue, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne.
Boulogne-sur-Mer has two faces: the busy fishing port down by the Liane estuary, the largest in France, and the Haute-Ville on the hill above, enclosed by thirteenth-century ramparts that you can walk all the way around. The belfry stands in the upper town, attached to the town hall, its lower part dating from the thirteenth century and the upper stages added later. It is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO, symbols of the freedom of medieval towns, which rang their bells to call citizens to arms, to work, or to assembly. You can climb it for a view over the rooftops, the port and the Channel.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne sits at 182 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de Rue.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Rue write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de Rue comes up about 234 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 273 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin. 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.
back through Beffroi de Saint-Riquier, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 336 km.
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 → Beffroi de Rue is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Rue → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne → back through Beffroi de Rue is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Beffroi de Rue → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 39 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 → Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.