France / Belgium Trip for Easter

I was thinking about heading over to France for Easter, get the Eurotunnel on Thursday night and just potter around for a few days. I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for great places to visit or routes that are a must do?

They only guarantee on my list is Ghent which I have been meaning to do for ages. Apart from that I have done trips to the following so am looking for alternate suggestions if possible:

Ypres (Although I may do again anyway, I love that place)
Antwerp
Bruge
Lille
Brussels
Dunkirk
Le Touquet

In particular I would like a suggestion for somewhere near Calais on the Thursday to have a fairly short ride post Eurotunnel in the evening.

Cheers in advance.

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Ghent is amazing, I went there in October last year. Be warned only taxis and trams are allowed into the centre of the town.

I’ve just came back from a trip over there a couple of weeks back.
Ghent is a nice place, well worth a visit but Bruges is much nicer.

We went to Dunkirk on the way back to the Tunnel and it would be pretty fair to say that the place is a bit of a shithole.
It’s like a slightly nicer version of Blackpool.
Thinking about it, anywhere is like a nicer version of Blackpool :laughing:

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I hated Dunkirk.

Spent 2 hours navigating roadworks and road closures to get to the museum I wanted to visit. Museum was closed for refurb, I turned around and drove to Bruge.

I don’t know why, but Dunkirk was soul destroying even without actually stepping foot off the bike.

Similar story here.
We were in the car. Never set foot out of it.

Have you got an International Driving Permit and green card from your insurers?

The way things are going with Brexshit, there’s a fair chance you’ll need them by then, along with health insurance.

If you do, then you’d probably be better off avoiding trying to get anywhere near Dover or Folkestone for a few weeks.

Good point! I am not sure where my international permit is, I will have a look for that. (And find out my spare lightbulbs, safety vest etc.)

What is this green card?

Edit: I googled it. Cheers I didn’t know about that. Just phoned up my insurers and they said they can issue immediately. (On the web says takes a month) So can sort that out.

It’s an insurance document you’ll need to use your vehicle in Europe once the UK has left the EU.

Just a thought, If I were trying to use the Tunnel around Easter I’d aim to travel on the Thursday afternoon before the school holiday rush.

We made the mistake of travelling early on Good Friday morning last year and it was chaos at the Folkestone terminal.
In my defence, we were going over to ride and watch the Tour of Flanders so never took any notice of when Easter was :laughing: