Authie Bay and Picardy Hinterland by Bike

Two days by bike in maritime Picardy, around the bay of the Authie. The route starts at Berck-sur-Mer and its vast beach, home to an international kite festival and to sand yachting, reaches the Authie estuary at Groffliers, where a colony of harbour seals rests on the sandbanks at low tide, then the gardens of Valloires, a Cistercian abbey surrounded by five thousand plant species, and finally Rue and its Chapel of the Holy Spirit, a masterpiece of flamboyant Gothic. There is no gradient, but the westerly wind is constant and can be punishing on the dykes. Watch the seals from a distance with binoculars: approaching disturbs them and is prohibited. Low tide late in the day gives the best sightings.