Via Francigena - Section 1 Cycling

Rest day as you cross the channel

58km, +961 m / -867 m: After crossing the Chanel between Dover and Calais, you will cycle along the Cote d’Opale, with its long sandy beaches and high white cliffs. This route offers you magnificent views of the coast. You will find there all the facilities you may need. You will walk along the game reserve of “Mont de Couple”, with great views on the Chanel. From Wissant, we start another very pleasant section of the route following the GR128 on farm tracks and small road until Licques.

72km, +628 m / -693 m: Today you will mainly follow flat minor roads. In Wisques you can see the two abbeys of St Paul and Notre Dame. Only few steps after the villages, you will reach Wizernes and La Coupole, a Second World War V-2 rocket base with a huge concrete dome, which is now a museum. In Therouanne you will see the beautiful Church of St Martin, dating from the 19th century, and also the archaeological site over the remains of the medieval city. In this part of the way, you will cycle off-road, in open farmland on tracks with good signage. This part of the trip is really typical of the region, with a lot of farm and small rural villages. After Amettes, your route will start to meander through former mining villages and open-cast mines. The area was indeed the leading place of mining industry in the 19th and the early 20th century. In La Buissiere you will find a Museum of mining, among a full range of facilities.

35km, +359 m / -318 m: Your route today begins with off-road tracks, first along a disused railway and then along the historic chaussée Brunehaut. Your cycling day is not long, and you will shortly see the first houses of the urban area of Arras. Approaching Arras, you will meander through the France of windmills and canals. In Arras, you can’t miss the Flemish influence, especially on architecture. You have to see the Town Hall, rebuilt in the Flamboyant Gothic style, the site of the Abbaye de Saint-Vaast and of course the main square “Grand Place”.

52km, +468 m / -490 m: Today you route mainly follows minor roads crossing farmland until Bapaume, a small town which is a crossing point between plains of Artois and Flandres in one hand, and Somme valley and Paris basin on the other. From here, you are entering in Somme, a French department which is famous for its WWI battles. You will follow an easy route, mainly cycling on quiet roads, and sometimes on farm tracks, along the old battlefields. In Peronne, there is some highlights which at least deserve to be seen, as the Monument to the Dead, the Historial de la Grande Guerre, or the Porte de Bretagne.

35km, +267 m / -232 m: Today you will follow minor roads and tracks, through Somme rural landscape, and then in the Aisne Region, where your rural landscape is now scattered with some woodlands. St Quentin is a more or less large town, where you will find all the facilities you could need. You must see the imposing 12th century basilica before you leave.

57km, +599 m / -596 m: You route first follow some very pleasant off-road sections, like tracks through woodlands or farmland. After Tergnier, you will enter in the forest of Saint Gobain, where you will walk on pleasant tracks or quiet roads until the village of Cessiere. There is a stiff climb near the Abbaye of St Nicolas, which will lead you to a beautiful view of the Abbaye and the forest. After that, you will mainly walk on quiet roads until Laon, a middle town with a full range of facilities. In Laon, you can’t miss the Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as the Citadelle. You also have to see the Chemin des Dames, one of the most sadly famous battles of the World War I, close to Laon.

71km, +842 m / -936 m: In this long cycling day, your route will meander through farmlands, first 30km along the Chemin des Dames (Lady’s Path), and then through vineyards, as you are entering in the Champagne Region. In the Chemin des Dames, theatre of several bloody battles of the World War I, you may see some huge craters made by artillery bombardments during those battles After walking through vineyards, you will arrive in Reims by the towpath of the Canal de l’Aisne et la Marne. In Reims, you have to see the outstanding Gothic Cathedral, part of the UNESCO World Heritage, the Place Royale with its statue of Louis XV and the one of Joan of Arc and the Porte de Mars, the oldest monument in Reims.

This is the end of your holiday after breakfast.