On the road

Hauts-de-France Region

Departments: Aisne, Nord, Oise, Pas-de-Calais, Somme.

Population: 6 million

Prefecture: Lille

Surface area: 31,813 km²

Specialities: beer, chicory, cheeses (Maroilles, Vieux Lille, Boulette d'Avesnes), fried mussels, carbonade, bêtises de Cambrai, potjevlesch, fricadelle.

Sports clubs: Lille OSC, Amiens SC, RC Lens, Valenciennes-Anzin (football), BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque, ESB Villeneuve d'Ascq (basketball), US Dunkerque (handball), Gothiques d'Amiens (ice hockey)

Competitions: Paris-Roubaix, Quatre Jours de Dunkerque, Grand Prix de Denain and Fourmies, Liévin athletics meeting, 2019 Women's Football World Cup, Davis Cup in Lille, Enduropale of Le Touquet, Hauts-de-France Golf Open, Trail Côte d'Opale.

Festivals: Arras Main Square Festival, Amiens International Film Festival, Lille European Film Festival, Amiens Archaeology Film Festival, Arras Film Festival, Côte d'Opale Festival, Amiens Comics Festival (Rendez-vous de la BD), etc.

Economy: mechanical engineering and metallurgy, chemicals, plastics, glass, textiles, transport, logistics, mail order, food processing. France's leading region for crop production, with half of the nation's sugar output.

Tourist sites: cathedrals of Amiens, Beauvais, Laon, Soissons, Abbeville, Saint-Omer; belfries of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and the Somme; citadels of Arras, Lille, Amiens and Montreuil; coalfields; castles of Chantilly, Pierrefonds, Hardelot, Olhain, Rambures.

Websites and social networks:www.hautsdefrance.fr

Vers-sur-Selle (Pop : 850)

Jean-Claude Lefebvre, who died in 2014, retired to Vers-sur-Selle. A professional from 1954 to 1968, he took part in six Tours de France between 1959 and 1966. He won Paris-Valenciennes in 1959 and a stage in the Grand-Prix du Midi Libre.

Monsures (Pop: 220)

Monsures is the village of Empire General Louis-Léger Boyeldieu (1774-1815), who was born and died in the commune.

Monsures Castle

Built: 1651 to 1804.

History: All that remains is the main gateway to the old fortress, framed by two towers, built in the 13th or 14th century. In the 16th century, the lordship of Monsures passed to the Tiercelin de Brosses family, who had a new residence built, corresponding to the current central building. During the first decade of the 19th century, Claire Blanche de Chassepot and her husband André de Couronnel had the château restored, enlarged and redecorated by Amiens architect Sénéchal. In 1912, it passed to the Morel de Foucaucourt family. In 1929, Baron Jean Morel de Foucaucourt, Inspector General of Finances, frequent traveller and aviator, had a landing strip installed behind the château for his personal plane. He also organised a popular air rally there every year.

Listed as: Historical Monument in 1926 and 1970.

Crèvecœur-le-Grand (Pop: 3,860)

The Fête de la Saint-Martin has been held here since the 11th century and celebrated its 560th anniversary in 2024. Crèvecoeur-le-Grand castle, built in the Renaissance style (16th and 17th centuries), has been a listed historical monument since 1959. Sold and split up after the Revolution, it now houses a hospital and the town hall. It was in Crèvecoeur-le-Grand that Josephine Baker married sugar broker Jean Lion in 1936.

Gerberoy (Pop: 90)

Gerberoy seems suspended in time, perched on a hillock in the Pays-de-Bray. Listed as one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France, it is also one of the smallest, with fewer than 100 inhabitants. Gerberoy was besieged, burnt and dismantled several times, but it was not until the arrival of the painter Henri Le Sidaner that it became a small rose town renowned as far afield as Japan and the United States. When, in 1901, the Impressionist painter expressed the wish to move to the countryside, the sculptor Rodin suggested a house in Gerberoy. Reserved, solitary and in search of inspiration, the painter fell in love with this unspoilt setting, far from the hustle and bustle of Paris. Almost 100 years later, Gerberoy became known as "the town of a thousand rosebushes" by encouraging residents to plant rosebushes in front of their houses. The village has three buildings listed as Historical Monuments: the eleventh- and fifteenth-century collegiate church of Saint-Pierre, a very pretty old mill and a brick farmhouse, the Vidame farmhouse, both in the Renaissance style.

Normandy Region

Departments: Calvados, Eure, Orne, Manche, Seine-Maritime.
Population: 3.34 million
Prefecture: Rouen
Regional Council headquarters: Caen
Surface area: 29,906 km²
Specialities: Saveurs de Normandie label. Cheeses: Camembert, Livarot, Pont-L'Évêque, Carré d'Auge, Neufchâtel, etc. Apples. Cider, calvados, pommeau, perry. Norman galettes and shortbread. Isigny caramels. Mirlitons. Salt meadow lamb from Mont Saint-Michel. Isigny butter and cream. Tripes à la mode de Caen.
Sports clubs: Stade Malherbe de Caen, FC Rouen 1899, Le Havre AC, US Quevilly Rouen Métropole (football). Caen Basket Calvados, Rouen Métropole Basket.
Competitions: CIC Normandy Channel Race. Transat Café l'Or. Polynormande, Tour of Normandy (stop in 2025). Marathon de la Liberté in Caen.
Economy: 9th national economic region (4.4% of GDP). 7 competitiveness clusters, 16 industries and 19 areas of excellence. Leading French region for energy and the equestrian sector. Normandy is France's leading producer of cow's milk cheese and cream, fibre flax, cider apples and cider products. The world's leading centre for luxury bottles, with 75% of global production.
Festivals: Caen Millennium. Cathedral of Light in Rouen. D Day Festival. Les Extraverties. Papillons de nuit Festival in Saint-Laurent-de-Cuves. Deauville American Film Festival. Cabourg Romantic Film Festival. Cabourg Mon Amour Festival. Bayeux Medieval Festival. Dieppe Kite Festival.
Tourist attractions: Mont Saint-Michel, the seaside towns of Deauville, Trouville, Granville, Honfleur, Étretat (cliffs), Cabourg. Channel Islands. Bayeux (tapestry). Alençon. Falaise Castle. Giverny and the Impressionists. Caen Memorial. Cathedrals of Rouen and Évreux. Basilica of Lisieux. Saint-Pierre church in Caen.
Websites and social networks:www.normandie.fr / www.normandie-tourisme.fr / www.normandiesites.com

Ferrières-en-Bray (Pop: 1,590)

It was in Ferrières-en-Bray, at the Manais farm, in 1850, that Charles Gervais, a clerk at Les Halles de Paris, and Mrs Héroud, a farmer in Bray, perfected the Petit Suisse recipe that was to make the Gervais group's fortune. The company's head office is still in Ferrières-en-Bray, where a Danone factory built in 2007 has absorbed the one previously located in Neufchâtel-en-Bray.

Ernemont-la-Villette (Pop: 210)

Ernemont-la-Villette was the village of Marc Huiart, one of the great hopes of French cycling, who was killed in 1962 at the age of 26 during the Grand Prix de Fourmies after being hit by a car. Marc Huiart had competed in the Tour de France in 1961 and 1962.

Bézu-la-Forêt (Pop: 300)

This is a former manor house of the kings of France, occupied in particular by the Merovingians and Carolingians, and destroyed during the fighting of the Hundred Years' War. The site was particularly popular with Philip the Fair, who set up a glassworks in Bézu-la-Forêt. The building was rebuilt between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Château de la Fontaine-du-Houx

Construction: 14th century.
History: this is a former manor house of the kings of France, occupied in particular by the Merovingians and Carolingians, and destroyed during the fighting of the Hundred Years' War. The site was particularly popular with Philip the Fair, who set up a glassworks in Bézu-la-Forêt. The building was rebuilt between the 16th and 18th centuries.
Listed as: Historical Monument in 1971.

Pont-Saint-Pierre (Pop: 1,140)

World hour record holder in 1907 and 1913, Marcel Berthet ran the Tron et Berthet saddlery in Pont-Saint-Pierre. He beat the record again in 1933, but on a bike of his own design, the Vélodyne, which was not approved by the UCI. Mainly a track racer, Marcel Berthet also had a career on the road, taking part in the Tour de France in 1908.

La Neuville-Chant d'Oisel  (Pop: 2,380)

In 1961, Jacques Anquetil bought Château des Elfes in La Neuville, built in 1835 by Jules de Maupassant, Guy's grandfather. Guy de Maupassant also stayed here, as did Gustave Flaubert. Jacques Anquetil took up permanent residence at the château in 1969. The château, which still belongs to the family of the five-time Tour de France winner, now houses guest rooms and hosts receptions and seminars. Actress Anny Duperey also hails from the commune, where her parents, who died when she was eight, were photographers.

Jacques Anquetil

In 1957, Jacques Anquetil won his first half-stage of the Tour de France on home soil in Rouen. Three weeks later, he completed his Tour apprenticeship with the Yellow Jersey on his shoulders. The Normandy-born rider had only competed in his first race six years earlier, following in the footsteps of his friend Maurice Dieulois, whose victories brought him success with women. Right from the start, Jacques Anquetil proved to be an exceptional time trial specialist and soon surpassed his school friend. Maurice Dieulois, who died in 2022, did not forget the early days of the 14-year-old Anquetil, who cycled every week the 15km between his village of Quincampoix and the college where he was studying for a vocational training certificate in turning and milling. “Jacques was a man of challenges. So we often tickled each other over the bumps. Jacques never wanted to admit he was beaten.” These qualities of a fighter were to be confirmed over the next decade. If it took him four years to win the Tour a second time, it was because during this interlude Jacques Anquetil had to endure the rivalry that reigned in the French team between the old hands, Louison Bobet and Raphaël Geminiani, and the ambitious Roger Rivière, Henri Anglade and himself. Jacques Anquetil was content to mark his territory against the clock and win the Giro in 1960. In 1961, the retirements of Bobet and Geminiani, as well as the accident suffered by Roger Rivière the previous year, gave him a free hand. Or almost... The quarrel within the French camp had left its mark and undermined the Normandy rider's popularity, while in 1961 a young rider by the name of Raymond Poulidor, winner of Milan-San Remo, was emerging. French coach Marcel Bidot was forced to leave Poulidor out in favour of Anquetil, who had to hit back hard: he announced his intention to wear the Yellow Jersey from the start to the finish of this Tour. And he kept his word. But his flippant and somewhat haughty persona continued to blur his image. The following year, he notched up a third Tour de France victory, but it was Poulidor, valiant despite a wrist injury, who stole the public vote. This ascendancy wavered in 1963, when it was the man from Normandy who put on the show to win an unprecedented fourth Maillot Jaune. At the Parc des Princes, it was "Poupou"'s turn to be whistled at. The duel between the two men divided France and culminated in 1964, when the two rivals went head-to-head. Struggling on the ascent to Port d'Envalira, Anquetil caught Poulidor and dropped him on the descent. The following day, it was the Limousin rider who won in Luchon before losing time again in the time trial that finished in Bayonne. The high point of this legendary Tour was the ascent of the Puy de Dôme, which the duo completed wheel-to-wheel before Anquetil let go, retaining the Yellow Jersey for just fourteen seconds. The time trial between Versailles and Paris brought him an unprecedented fifth title. The two heroes rode together in a lap of honour at the Parc des Princes. Anquetil had no idea that his reign was coming to an end. In 1965, he decided not to take part in the Grand Tours and his return the following year was marred by bronchitis, which forced him to work for his team-mate Lucien Aimar before retiring. He was not to be seen again in the Tour. Anquetil remains one of the most mysterious figures in cycling, with a secret and turbulent private life, an epicurean but also meticulous and calculating, which his rivals, the public and the press will always find hard to understand. “An F1 engine, a computer and a still”, summed up Raphaël Geminiani, his sporting director in his best years.

Côte of Bonsecours (Jean Robic stele)

Jean Robic (1921-1980) won the 1947 Tour de France without having held the Yellow Jersey, apart from on the podium at the Parc des Princes. In the final stage, following an attack on Côte de Bonsecours , he distanced and stripped Pierre Brambilla with the help of Édouard Fachleitner.

Jean Robic

Jean Robic was a strong head, but not strong enough to withstand the hard cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. And it was because he had twice cracked his skull in the Hell of the North that the Breton, born in the Ardennes, wore his "helmet" while racing, a flimsy assembly of leather straps that earned him the nickname "leather head". His small build (1.60 m for sixty-one kilos) earned him another nickname, "the yellow dwarf", a reference to the Yellow Jersey he snatched on the last stage of the 1947 Tour. For the public (especially in Brittany), who adored him, Jean Robic remained "Biquet", an endearing and tough rider, full of all the clichés attached to road warriors. His victory in the first Tour of the post-war era went a long way to establishing his legend. Rejected from the French team, which had been put together for pre-war hero René Vietto, he joined the Western team, made up almost exclusively of Bretons. Which is not to say that the atmosphere was ideal. Robic also had a bad temper, which earned him more enemies than friends in the peloton. Wasn't it Robic who nicknamed Louison Bobet "Louisette Bonbon" because he found him affected and whiny? And this adversity stimulated him. In this 1947 Tour, Leather Head did as he pleased. Halfway through the race, he was 23 minutes adrift of Vietto. Stung to the core, he announced that he was going to attack from the start of the first stage in the Pyrenees: he kept his word and took fifteen minutes off the Yellow Jersey. The next day, he won the sprint in Bordeaux! Then Vietto collapsed in the time trial held with three days to go, relinquishing his jersey to Italian Pierre Brambilla. Finally came the last-chance attack between Caen and Paris, organised with Edouard Fachleitner and the French team, in exchange for money, to bring down the Italian leader. Jean Robic became the winner of the liberation. With as much cunning as panache. He would never again find such favourable circumstances in the world's greatest race. A great cyclo-cross fan, he certainly became the first world champion in 1950 in Paris. But the Tour eluded him because riders of the calibre of Louison Bobet and Fausto Coppi stood in his way. A final Yellow Jersey in 1953 was Biquet's last honours on the Tour. He did not finish the last four editions in which he took part. Owner of a brewery in Paris Rue du Maine from the mid-1950s, he didn't hang up his boots until 1961, even if the results didn't follow. His temper caught up with him one evening in October 1980, when he was boozing with former cyclists at a party organised by Joop Zoetemelk. A brawl broke out. Vexed, Robic left the scene with a woman whom he escorted back to Paris. It had been a drunken evening. The Audi 100 crashed into a lorry trailer. "Trompe la mort" (Trump Death) was another of his nicknames. He didn't protect it that night.