The best cycling routes around Licques

Located in the Hem Valley, Licques is renowned for the quality of its poultry. The turkey, which carries the label, is said to have been brought back from Santiago de Compostela by monks in the Middle Ages.

Located 15 kilometers from Calais, this small town boasts a rich historical heritage. It was not far from here that Francis I and Henry VIII met for the "Interview at the Field of the Cloth of Gold." In 1785, its national forest also served as the landing site for the first flight over the sea. Don't miss the Clock Tower in its center.

You only get these beautiful panoramas if you also conquer the slopes 😉

Small church without appearance, but curious for certain details: 19th century nave mounted on old foundations, central tower and choir, this one built in the 16th century and vaulted. The bell tower is unfinished or destroyed in the upper parts and has only one floor, which corresponds to the refuge room raised above the sanctuary.

The tower has been perched on the hill of the feudal motte-and-bailey castle since 1763 and offers a view of Calais, the Côte d'Opale, the Flemish plain and the bocage around Boulogne. At its foot is an interactive museum dedicated to the past of Guînes: the arrival of the Vikings, the founding of the city by Sifrid around 800, the meeting at the Camp du Drap d'Or.

Balinghem is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in north-eastern France. The commune has 829 inhabitants (1999). The commune is part of the arrondissement of Calais. Monuments in this village are the church (Église de la Nativité-de-Notre-Dame) and the war memorial

It is a building (1885) made of local red bricks, the design is cruciform, a fairly large nave, two aisles and a choir with a bell tower on top. The interior of the building has a very rich appearance. The centerpiece of the furniture is undoubtedly the altar and the accompanying altarpiece, completely carved in wood and from a recent period (1925). On either side of the nave there are two altars on which rest Saint Mary (left) and Saint Joseph (right). On the floor are placed two other altarpieces, in which two statues are embedded (Saint Therese and Saint Martin) The baptismal font, the marble font, an 18th century pulpit with its openwork staircase and its four carved wooden bas-reliefs representing Gospel scenes, old paintings, the confessional, the bell "Georgina Irma", baptized in August 1901, make up the wealth of this church. The special thing about our village church is the veneration of the Notre Dame des Larmes, a semi-natural statue from the 15th century (presumably) remarkable French work of art. This virgin was previously invoked for the healing of eye ailments, but is in reality the virgin of sorrows who stands at the foot of the cross. Another statue of the Notre Dame from a more recent period, a crowned work, adorns our church.

The artist was inspired by the famous phrase of the supreme and truly Cornelian call: "Arise, the dead!" ". This call is proclaimed by a grenadier with a greatcoat half torn by the explosions; he steps over a gabion and prepares to launch the deadly projectile towards the enemy: the poilu is alive and the stone seems alive. Despite the difficulties in the execution, the artist fortunately managed to avoid any heaviness, he was able to give the stone all the desired and possible flexibility. Ardres was kind enough, in keeping with the erection of this magnificent monument, to honour the memory of the 82 heroes and their children who died gloriously during the Great War.