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.
361 km from Calais to Calais, about 5 h 13 of riding. The stops in between: Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, Beffroi de Saint-Riquier and Beffroi d’Amiens. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Most riders know Calais as the place where the ferry or the tunnel train spits them out onto French tarmac, and they head south without a backward glance. Spare it an hour. The town hall is a surprise, a grand building in Flemish Renaissance style finished in the early twentieth century, and its belfry, one of the tallest in the region, rises well above the rooftops as a landmark you can see from the port. It forms part of the UNESCO list of belfries in Belgium and France, alongside towers that are centuries older.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 34 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 106 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin. 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, about halfway. Next is Beffroi d’Amiens.
Amiens built its belfry to say something, and the message was independence. Rising above the town hall in the early fifteenth century, the belfry housed the bell that called citizens to assembly and warned of fire and enemy, and it became the symbol of a town that had won its freedoms from the king and the local lords. UNESCO listed the belfries of northern France and Belgium together in 1999, and the Amiens tower is one of the finest, topped later by a baroque lantern. A short walk away stands the cathedral of Notre-Dame, the largest Gothic cathedral in France by volume, which was listed in 1981.
Read the complete Beffroi d’Amiens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi d’Amiens sits at 194 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 224 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 255 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 361 km.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → Beffroi de Saint-Riquier is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Saint-Riquier → Beffroi d’Amiens is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi d’Amiens → back through Beffroi de Saint-Riquier is 45 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’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 31 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 l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.