Somewhere South of Calais please

Status
Not open for further replies.

Big-G

Well-known member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Apr 5, 2005
Messages
1,179
Reaction score
89
Location
North Wales
I have been tasked with a brief long weekend trip to France next month and given we have a 300 mile run to Folkestone I'm guessing we will want something around 100 miles south of Calais to base ourselves for the Friday to Sunday nights then travelling back Monday. We are happy to go rural or small village hotels but thinking the likes of the Alsace will be too far.
Any idea's please as to where geographically and any hotel recommendations. A bit broad I know but we are open to anything.
Cheers
G
 
A ride of two and a half hours or appx 150 miles from Calais would put you in Honfleur which is a lovely harbour resort that has great food, choice of accommodation and is a good base from which to explore D-day history related areas eg Pegasus Bridge etc if that's of interest?

Honfleur is a city in the department of Calvados, in northern France's Normandy region. It's on the estuary where the Seine river meets the English Channel. The Vieux-Bassin (old harbor), lined with 16th- to 18th-century townhouses, has been a subject for artists including Claude Monet

:popcorn
 
Maybe post this in the France section of travel.

Unfortunately 100 miles south of Calais doesn’t throw up a lot of amazing biking country. A bit further and more easterly you’ve got the Ardennes, otherwise it’s, as Bisbee says, head east.

Having said that - we have stayed in Wissant many times and had the odd long weekend there - it’s a pretty 20 minute coastal drive from Calais. It’s a nice, small seaside town with smallish hotels and restaurants. There are some pleasant enough places to ride out to, nothing amazing but for an easy to get to, relaxed weekend we like it.
 
Go south east and you can be on the Belgian border near Maubeuge or Mons - plenty of nice day trips from a base here

Go SW and you can be in Abbeville

Also consider an overnight boat from Portsmouth to Le Havre, Caen etc. This will reduce your travel in the UK by an hour, widen your options and maybe give extra time in France. Most of the ferries are late evening so I have gone to work on a Friday, finish at 5pm and got to Portsmouth with time for some dinner before boarding the ferry. Roll off the boat early in the morning, ride for an hour before getting some breakfast.
 
I agree with Wessie - take one of the Western Channel routes overnight; Portsmouth would be a far easier ride from N.Wales anyway.

Then, how about the Loire Valley. Base say in Amboise. Chateaux/Forests/History everywhere you look.

Rides - Chateaudun & along the Loir valley to La Fleche. The Loire valley from Orleans/Olivet, Blois, Tours,Saumur to Angers, then the Mayenne valley north to Laval. Take your time & absorb it all.

Otherwise, If you are interested in WW2 history, then do the Normandy Beaches. Plenty of info, just use search.
 
Thanks chaps, we have done loads of overnight ferry’s in the past but the guys wanted to try the train as some haven’t been this way before. It also gets us from a to b in one day so we get all 3 nights in France and not 2 on the boat. As some of the guys work shifts or away then it’s an early morning start rather than the night before. Good ideas so far though. Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The bod wants a place to stay, 100 miles south of Calais.

Honfleur is definitely not south of Calais, nor is Belgium (really).

St Quentin is about 110 miles ‘south’ of Calais, so have a look around there. The town is popular with blokes on motorbikes. You can have a decent ride on the D roads the next day down to say, Peronne or further.
 
The bod wants a place to stay, 100 miles south of Calais.

Honfleur is definitely not south of Calais, nor is Belgium (really).

St Quentin is about 110 miles ‘south’ of Calais, so have a look around there. The town is popular with blokes on motorbikes. You can have a decent ride on the D roads the next day down to say, Peronne or further.

If you are getting picky, St Quentin is not south of Calais. Google maps does not give you a N-S perspective. As shown in the map below, Amiens is closer to being 100 miles south :p

france-lat-long.jpg
 
There isn't anything particularly noteworthy due south of Calais, but plenty of nice enough towns to visit. It depends on what you want the focus of your trip to be.

If it's pretty scenery and twisty roads you're after, I'd head South-West to put the Ardennes within range. Montherme in France is nice (bit more than 100 miles though).
 
If you are getting picky, St Quentin is not south of Calais. Google maps does not give you a N-S perspective. As shown in the map below, Amiens is closer to being 100 miles south :p

france-lat-long.jpg

Hence the inverted commas around ‘south’.

Anyway, I’m sure he and his mates will find a hotel within a 100 miles ‘southish’ radius of Calais; there are after all enough suggestions (along with associated routes) on this site.

:beerjug:
 
Hotel Mercure, Arras. 70 miles on the A26, underground parking, easy access, good restaurants and good base for exploring the Somme battlefields. Get the Ride Guide out. There are good roads to be found in the area.
 
?What about Beauvais? easy access and triangular routes to reims. Other than that Arras is nice, good routes to and from, see wappings routes ?
 
Agree with tanneman, Arras. Fantastic market square, two of 'em, good rib restaurant. Visit the Wellington tunnels (La Wellington Carriere) . Don't go the autoroute, go on the N & D roads, great they are, you would know you were in northern France. also not far but East is Ypres.
 
There isn't anything particularly noteworthy due south of Calais, but plenty of nice enough towns to visit. It depends on what you want the focus of your trip to be.

If it's pretty scenery and twisty roads you're after, I'd head South-West to put the Ardennes within range. Montherme in France is nice (bit more than 100 miles though).

south west?
 
Montreuil-sur-Mer is only about 50 miles from Calais but is a nice place for a few days. The coastal road D940 can be explored with plenty of stop and look locations or head inland to Albert through Hesdin. Through the middle the D127 is a quiet route back - not the Alps by a long stretch but a pleasant place to ride free
 
Hotel Mercure, Arras. 70 miles on the A26, underground parking, easy access, good restaurants and good base for exploring the Somme battlefields. Get the Ride Guide out. There are good roads to be found in the area.

?What about Beauvais? easy access and triangular routes to reims. Other than that Arras is nice, good routes to and from, see wappings routes ?

Either of these work. Arras is 1 hour 15 minutes from Calais, whilst St Quentin is 2 hours 15 minutes from Calais, both straight ‘south’ down the same motorway that you’d take heading ‘south’ to Marseille.

Reading your posts, you want three nights in France, having headed over from Wales (300 miles from Calais) on day one on Friday. I am also conscious that you apparently need to come back to Wales in a day on the Monday, so you want to be reasonably close to Calais (or at least close to a reliable motorway) in order to complete your return journey. Either Arras or St Quentin will allow that, Arras being an hour closer to Calais. Similarly, either will allow you to ride out on Saturday and Sunday into France or Belgium, St Quentin giving you a few different options simply because it’s an hour further ‘south’.

This also assumes you want to be in the same single hotel on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights? This has the advantage in that it saves you packing and unpacking each time you move. The other advantage is that it keeps the distance you inevitably have to travel back to Calais on the Monday constant at between 1 hour 15 (Arras) and 2 hours 15 (St Quentin).

If you are looking to move hotels, it opens up a whole heap of other possibilities, it all depends if you are set on ‘south’ and staying in France. For example, you could cut down the journey into France on the Friday considerably if you stayed the first night (Friday) in St Omer. Then on the Saturday, rode on D roads to say Verdun’ish on the Saturday to stay overnight. Then on the Sunday, ride back to St Omer (on different D roads) to St Omer, for the short hop to Calais on the Monday.

Somewhere, you have got to compromise as you are inevitably stuck with the long journey back to north Wales in one day on the Monday. Whether that compromise is staying in one hotel or lobbing in some motorway miles or your proximity to Calais for the first or last nights is up to you.
 
Thanks for all the advice and I've been slowly going through it on the map and there are various options that really fit the bill. Now I've got to make a decision.
Cheers
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom