After visiting La Rotonde and La Tour Florentine (major 1920s railway-related constructions), Europe’s largest stretch of bocage, or hedgerow-divided fields, provides a peace setting as you cycle through the Thiérache area, hawthorn hedges, apple orchards and babbling brooks marking the way. The riverside fields are sometimes flooded by the unruly Oise. Ohis Viaduct, with its giant arches stepping over the river, is the most striking feat of engineering on this surprising Axe Vert de la Thiérache.

A stage giving you a condensed summary of the Thiérache area’s delights, with its fortified churches, green meadows and unspoilt brick villages. All the way along, remarkably beautiful fortified churches alternate with stretches of pastureland. The end of the stage produces highlights in the form of Beaurain’s magnificent fortified church and the town of Guise, dominated by its impressive medieval keep and home to the progressive cooperative housing project, the 19th-century Familistère Godin.