Open a GPX file

Rural France from Calais

A big loop on French back roads with no mountains: the Picardy coast, the Pays d'Auge and the Suisse Normande, the Loire chateaux, Sancerre and Vezelay, the Morvan forests, Champagne and the Meuse valley through the Ardennes.

Distance
1,095 miles (1,762 km)
Type
Loop
Where
Normandy, the Loire, Morvan and Ardennes

At 150 to 300 miles a day, this is 4 to 8 days of riding. Set your own daily distance and add rest days.

Plotted by us, not yet ridden

Starts at Calais ferry port

Download GPX Plan this tripBook this trip
Book this tripCrossing Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, P&O Ferries, DFDSBeds from Calais, and each nightCover insurance and breakdownSee it all

Click a dot for details. White dots are the stops, each with a bed search. Yellow dots are places to see.

Main roads

D119D943D225E3D225D217D192D928D340D349D113D135D1001D901D925

From the map

Longest gap between fuel
38 miles
Fuel stations near the line
182
Curvature
88 ° a mile
Campsites within 2 km
172
  • The longest stretch with no fuel station within 1 km of the line runs from mile 631 to mile 669. Check it against your range with the fuel range calculator.
  • The twistiest 20 miles run from mile 643 to mile 663, at 263 degrees of turning a mile.
  • Countries: France.
  • 43 motorcycle shops are within 3 km of the line.
  • More routes from this port.

Measured on the route line from OpenStreetMap data, which can be missing or out of date. Curvature is degrees of turning a mile, measured every 100 metres. On our routes they run from 6 on the E19 to 701 on the SP638.

Before you go

  • The line keeps off motorways and toll roads by design. Swap in the autoroute for any stretch you want to cover quickly.
  • Small towns can be shut on Sunday afternoons and Mondays. Fuel at supermarkets is often card only out of hours.

On the way

  1. Calais
  2. Hesdin
  3. Abbeville
  4. Le Treport
  5. Neufchatel-en-Bray
  6. Lyons-la-Foret
  7. Les Andelys
  8. Thury-Harcourt
  9. Clecy
  10. Domfront
  11. Sainte-Suzanne
  12. Saumur
  13. Chinon
  14. Loches
  15. Valencay
  16. Sancerre
  17. Vezelay
  18. Chateau-Chinon
  19. Saulieu
  20. Chatillon-sur-Seine
  21. Bar-sur-Aube
  22. Sainte-Menehould
  23. Charleville-Mezieres
  24. Montherme
  25. Hirson
  26. Cambrai
  27. Saint-Omer
  28. Calais

Split it into days

Pick the miles you like to ride in a day. Each day ends at the named place on the route nearest that distance, and you get a GPX file for each day.

This is your pace, not our estimate of how long the riding takes. Day lengths vary because each day ends at a named place.

Ready to ride it?

Book this trip

Plan it with dates in the tour planner

1Getting there

This route starts where the boat or train lands at Calais. Book the bike as a motorcycle, not a car.

Compare every crossing

2Places to stay

Split the route into days above and each day gets its own bed search for where it ends.

Back to the days

3Cover

Check your bike insurance covers riding abroad, get travel insurance that covers motorcycling at your engine size, and breakdown cover that recovers a motorcycle in every country on the route.

What to check before you buy cover

The country on this route

What GOV.UK says riders need for it, checked 05/11/2026. Rules change, so read the official page before you go.

France

Money
Euro
Ride on the
Right
  • Riding into central Paris, Lyon, Grenoble or another low emission zone? You need a Crit'Air sticker. Buy it only from the official site (official site)
  • Some mountain areas require winter tyres or chains from 1 November to 31 March: check which vehicles and areas it covers (official site)
  • The drink-drive limit is a third lower than in England and Wales, with regular roadside checks

On every trip abroad: your licence, insurance that covers riding abroad, the V5C and travel insurance with medical cover. The tour planner turns all of this into a checklist each rider in your group can tick off.

Places to see on the way

Castles, passes, viewpoints and more within easy reach of the line, in the order you reach them. Yellow dots on the map.

Place details from Wikidata. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each card.

More routes in Europe

See them all
Adriatic coast road, Rijeka to Dubrovnik 366 miAlta to the North Cape 146 miAmalfi Coast road 36 miAuvergne volcanoes and the Puy Mary 186 miBlack Forest B500 127 miCalais to Lake Geneva for the Route des Grandes Alpes 575 miCalais to Roscoff along the Normandy and Brittany coast 562 miCalais to Santander through France 1,118 mi