September 1, 2024
To Dunkirque
I spend a restless night, lying in bed and awakened from time to time by Rachael coughing next to me. She doesn’t sound great, and as I lie there I think through alternatives for how to get to our next stay, Dunkirque, in case she can’t bike. It’s only fifteen miles, but if she’s not up to biking it will be a challenge getting her there because there’s no direct or even reasonable train option. We’re just north of the French border, and the Belgian line stops here. If we want the train it will set us back about €70 and require two transfers starting with a train northeast back to Antwerp. We’d be better off staying here a second night and writing off our Dunkirque lodging, hoping she’d be better with another day’s rest. Or perhaps we could throw her and her bike on a taxi and I could bike myself.
All that worry is for nothing though, because once I wake up she says she feels fine to ride. She’s hardly coughing once she’s standing up and doesn’t feel particularly ill. So of course we’re biking. It’s such a short ride that I think we can afford a quick two block detour back to Market Square to see the belfry in the morning light.
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It’s only 16 miles to Dunkirque, but I round us up to the nearest 19 when I decide I want to see the beach at least once today on this ride. We’ve been paralleling it the whole way but it’s out of sight, hidden on the other side of a long ridge of sand dunes. From the map it looks like there’s a road or path along the shore we can take, so we cross the dune. It’s farther than I’d thought - well over half a mile - but as I’d hoped, there is a coastal promenade. I stop for a shot of the beach and then we follow the promenade south, weaving through the walkers and strollers and dogs for a few minutes until we get past the bulk of them.
Barely blocks later though we come to the end of the promenade and discover that the coastal road I thought I’d seen is really just a walk on the sand. So we turn back and cross back over the dunes to our route on the first road we come to but this is a poor choice too because it’s a main road - and when we come to our bike path it’s about fifty feet below the overpass we’re biking on. It’s another half mile until we come finally to an exit and can turn back.
So our detour to the beach costs us three miles. I hope you appreciate that excellent beach shot, because it’s the only one I stop for today.
Video sound track: August Moon, by Neil Young
Fortunately our little detour hasn’t made us late for lunch at Le Protocole, the waterfront fish house we’ve targeted. It’s a near miss though. We don’t have a reservation, and there’s exactly one unreserved table left where we both enjoy an excellent salmon meal. Afterwards we bike to the Hotel Les Jardins, which adds a bit more unnecessary distance too because we aren’t booked there. We had been at one point though, which is why the mapped route led us there. I forgot to correct the map when we changed our minds and booked at the a best Western later.
Fortunately all that pointless extra biking doesn’t seem to have set Rachael back. She crashes soon after we check in to our room though, nd after she wakes up from her nap heads down to the lobby to get a cold drink. When I come down a few minutes later for a walk around town, she tells me there’s a sculpture garden not far away that I could consider, so that’s where I head.
It’s not quite a mile away, and well worth the trip over there. The sculptures are quirky and delightful, and there are a few nature notes to enhance the visit.
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I’m starting to lose the day by the time I leave the garden so I head forthwith for the main thing I wanted to see in Dunkirque, its UNESCO-cited belfry. It’s a mile off in the other direction on the opposite side of our hotel, but on the way my route takes me past another monument I wanted to stop for on the way to lunch:
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I get to the belfry sooner than I expected - my directions say I’m still several blocks away - but I’ve seen it coming nearly the entire way so it’s hard to miss. I take shots from several angles trying to get one that shows it reasonably well in this evening’s light. It’s quite expressive, nd is more than just the belfry - it’s the city hall.
A few blocks later, on my way back to the hotel now, I stop for a look at the facade of the Saint-Eloi Church, part of it’s west facing facade nicely illuminated by the setting sun.
It’s not fully illuminated though, and the middle of it is in shadows. I turn around to see what’s blocking the sun and see what my phone was navigating me toward - another belfry. I hadn’t realize that Dunkirque has two UNESCO-cited belfries, just a few blocks apart from each other. This one is the Saint-Eloi belfry, associated with the church - built in 1440, it was originally a part of the church until a terrible fire separated them a century later. If it was earlier in the day and earlier in my time of life I could scramble up its staircase to what must be a killer view of the city.
Today's ride: 19 miles (31 km)
Total: 3,658 miles (5,887 km)
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Also, Scott, the blurry butterfly looks quite artistic.
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