Why this ride
A 232 km round trip from Arras - roughly 3 h 33 in the saddle. The stops in between: Terril 31, Beffroi de Gravelines and back through Terril 31. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras and Beffroi de Gravelines
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 232 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 33
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
Arras has two great squares, the Grand-Place and the Place des Héros, surrounded by tall Flemish-baroque houses with curved gables and arcades, and towering above them is the belfry of the town hall, over seventy metres high. It looks medieval, but most of it is a careful reconstruction: Arras was devastated by German artillery during the First World War, when the front line ran just east of the town for years, and the belfry was destroyed in 1914. After the war, the people of Arras rebuilt it, along with the squares, and today it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras is where the day begins. Next is Terril 31.
2. Terril 31
A terril is a coal slag heap, and in the old Artois coalfield they punctuate the horizon like unfinished pyramids. This one, numbered 31 in the local inventory of the mining basin, lies on the southern fringe of the field, near Norrent-Fontes and Mametz, where the plain of the Lys starts to tilt against the low hills of Artois. Heaps like this were built up over decades from the waste rock hauled out of the pits, and many are conical, a few are flat-topped and some stretch in long ridges. Left alone, they have turned into oddities of nature, with warm black soil that suits unusual plants, birch scrub, and in summer a surprising number of butterflies.
Read the complete Terril 31 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 31 comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de Gravelines.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de Gravelines. Next is back through Terril 31.
4. back through Terril 31
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 31 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 31, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras.
5. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras to Terril 31
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras → Terril 31 is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 31 to Beffroi de Gravelines
Terril 31 → Beffroi de Gravelines is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Gravelines to back through Terril 31
Beffroi de Gravelines → back through Terril 31 is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 31 to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
back through Terril 31 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.