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.
A 252 km round trip from Tournai - roughly 4 h 08 in the saddle. On the way it passes Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune, Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de and back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune. It crosses from Belgium into France - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 62 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Five towers. That is what everyone remembers about Tournai's cathedral, and when you first see them rising above the rooftops of this old city on the Scheldt, they seem almost too many for one building. The cathedral of Notre-Dame is one of the great churches of Europe, with a massive Romanesque nave and transept from the twelfth century and a later Gothic choir, tall and light, built in the following century. The combination is a lesson in medieval architecture, and it earned the building a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list. It has been under long restoration after a storm in 1999 damaged the structure, so parts may be covered in scaffolding when you visit.
Read the complete Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai is where the day begins. Next is Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune.
Béthune was a mining town on the edge of the Artois, and Pit Number 9 of the Béthune company is one of the surviving complexes that UNESCO included in its listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin. A mining complex is more than a hole in the ground: there were the winding house and headframe, the screening and washing plants, the offices, the baths where miners scrubbed off the coal dust, the stables for the pit ponies and the railway sidings, and many of these structures stand near Vermelles. Brick, steel and slag dominate the scene, and a sense of effort and anonymity hangs over it.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de.
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.
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de. Next is back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune, late in the day. Next is Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai. That is the ride.
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai → Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune → Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’ancienne maison communale de → back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune → Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.