CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 166 km round trip from Dunkerque - roughly 2 h 35 in the saddle. The stops in between: Beffroi de Gravelines, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne and back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque is where the day begins. 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 comes up 31 km in. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais.
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.
62 km in you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais. 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, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais sits at 123 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de Gravelines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gravelines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de Gravelines comes up 154 km in. Next is 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.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque closes the day.
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 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais → back through Beffroi de Gravelines is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Gravelines → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Dunkerque is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.