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 330 km round trip from Canterbury - roughly 4 h 54 in the saddle. On the way it passes Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais, Beffroi de Gravelines, Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque and Landhuis met Belfort. It crosses United Kingdom, France and Belgium - carry ID and check vignette or 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 about 87 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 113 km into the recorded legs 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 Landhuis met Belfort.
Veurne's market square is one of the most complete in Flanders, and the old Landhuis, with its belfry rising behind it, is the reason. The Landhuis was the seat of the castellany, the regional administration that governed the surrounding countryside, and its belfry is part of the group of Belgian and French belfries protected by UNESCO. Around the square stand the town hall, the old meat hall and a row of gabled houses, many dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when Veurne was under Spanish rule, which explains the stepped gables and ornate facades.
Read the complete Landhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Landhuis met Belfort sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque comes up about 194 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 219 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Beffroi de Gravelines. 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, late in the day. Next is St. Augustine's Abbey, 41 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.
The route ends here after 330 km.
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 → Landhuis met Belfort is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Landhuis met Belfort → back through Beffroi de l’église St-Eloi de Dunkerque is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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.