Lille fades quickly as the route heads into northern France. The landscape feels wider, more open, slightly raw – fields, traces of industry, small towns heavy with history. Memorials and cemeteries appear along the way, quiet reminders of the past. Beyond Arras, it softens: greener, calmer, emptier roads. Long straights roll into gentle undulations. As you approach Compiègne, forests begin to close in. A reflective day, gradually settling into the calm of the trees.
