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.
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 Canterbury it runs 283 km to Canterbury; allow about 4 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais, Beffroi de Gravelines, Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque and back through Beffroi de Gravelines. It crosses from United Kingdom into France - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 87 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Canterbury has been the centre of English Christianity for fourteen centuries, and the ruined abbey of Saint Augustine is where it began. In AD 597, Augustine, a Roman monk sent by Pope Gregory the Great, landed in Kent with a small group of companions to convert the English. King Aethelberht of Kent, whose wife Bertha was already a Christian, received them, and the king himself was baptised soon afterwards. Augustine founded a monastery outside the city walls, where he and his successors were buried, and it grew into one of the richest abbeys in England.
Read the complete St. Augustine's Abbey write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St. Augustine's Abbey is where the day begins. 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.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais comes up 46 km in. 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.
92 km in you reach Beffroi de Gravelines. Next is Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque.
The belfry of Saint-Éloi stands alone, which is odd for a church tower. It was originally attached to the church, but after fires and rebuilding in earlier centuries, a street was cut between them, and the tower became a separate landmark. Today it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO, and its carillon plays tunes across the centre of Dunkirk, including a local song. You can climb to the top for views over the port, the city and the North Sea.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque, 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 sits at 184 km, 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 comes up 230 km in. Next is St. Augustine's Abbey, 46 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St. Augustine's Abbey write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St. Augustine's Abbey closes the day.
St. Augustine's Abbey → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais → Beffroi de Gravelines is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Gravelines → Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque → back through Beffroi de Gravelines is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Gravelines → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais → St. Augustine's Abbey is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.